iBOZAR - Centre for Fine Arts Brussels (Palais des Beaux-Arts)Mont des Arts
A 15-minute VR journey turning Iraq Photo Archive photographs and oral testimonies into a virtual space. Ages 12 and up.
You start in a dim courtyard of a traditional Iraqi shanasheel house, with wooden balconies, lattice screens and a black-and-white portrait on the wall. Step towards the photo and everything goes dark. When New Lines magazine tried the piece in 2024, that portrait of a 16-year-old opened onto her family's garden in al-Adhamiya, Baghdad, with breakfast on a blanket while her own voice described it.
The photographs and voices come from the Iraq Photo Archive, Basil Al-Rawi's online collection of family pictures sent in by Iraqis, and the stories are mostly of the 1970s and the displacement that followed. The work grew out of his PhD at the Glasgow School of Art.
It lasts 15 minutes, in English with Arabic subtitles or the reverse, and Bozar recommends it from age 12. It's in Foyer 4. Tickets are €6, or free on the same day with a ticket for Kentridge, Brusselmans, Dekyndt x Balenciaga or Central.
The shanasheel courtyard
The piece opens in a virtual Baghdad house with carved wooden balconies, lattice screens and family photographs that turn into memories when you walk up to them.
Około 15 min
You came for objects on walls: this is one 15-minute piece inside a VR headset.
Bozar recommends it from age 12, and under-18s get in free.
iRoyal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Old Masters Museum and Modern Museum)
iRoyal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Old Masters Museum and Modern Museum)
iRoyal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (Old Masters Museum and Modern Museum)