The War Zone Drawings by Ghaith Abdul Ahad

Exhibition of drawings and book presentation by GHAITH ABDUL AHAD

WARM Festival at Smoje Gallery, Sarajevo, 2023
Organized in partnership with Mediacentar Sarajevo

The War Zone Drawings presented a selection of drawings by Iraqi journalist and writer Ghaith Abdul Ahad, created alongside his reporting from Iraq and other conflict zones. Known internationally for his long-form war correspondence, Abdul Ahad has also used drawing as a parallel form of testimony – recording moments, faces and situations that photography could not always capture.

The exhibition was accompanied by the presentation of his book A Stranger in Your Own City, a personal account of growing up in Baghdad, living through dictatorship, invasion and sectarian violence, and navigating the shifting realities of war both as a witness and as a reporter. The book reflects on exile, return and the experience of becoming a stranger in one’s own city.

The Sarajevo event brought together Abdul Ahad’s visual and written work, opening a discussion on memory, displacement and the limits of documentation in times of conflict. The conversation was moderated by Boro Kontić. The work is the result of close collaboration between photographers and those portrayed.