It’s Art But It’s Not

Location

Country: UK
City: London
Place: Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport, 100 Parliament Street

It’s Art But It’s Not documents a 2014 regeneration project led by Rabab Ghazoul that explored how contemporary arts practice can transform people’s engagement with their community and environment. The site-responsive art works were developed with young people from Valleys Kids, alongside Penygraig community residents, and were commissioned by Artes Mundi, RCT Homes and Valleys Kids.

Over the course of two months, Rabab Ghazoul worked with a team of young community consultants to design and run a series of creative conversations. These encounters engaged with residents through pop-up events that included a story exchange that took place in a local shop, in which locals shared their thoughts and anecdotes about the area; and presenting recurring themes and words on the high street. This culminated in a photography event with a call to action for the local community to participate around key locations in Penygraig with photographer Michal Iwanowski.

Born in Iraq, Rabab Ghazoul began making experimental theatre in Wales in the 1990s. Her work now incorporates video, installation, text, performance and site-specific work. She is the founder of the Cardiff-based organisation Gentle/Radical. At the intersections of art, culture, equalities and social justice, she has championed critical debates on decoloniality, power and privilege within Wales. Ghazoul was one of five artists to represent Iraq in the Iraqi Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale. Selected exhibitions and projects are ‘This Edible Map’, Gresol Festival of Art, Girona, Spain (2004); ‘The Suitcase Project’, Beaver Arts, Copenhagen (2007); solo exhibition ‘Can't Keep Up With Keeping You Down’, Chapter Arts Centre; and Pontcanna Fields Allotments, Cardiff (2008); ‘Intermission 2020’, off-site g39, Cardiff (2020).

Places

Subjects

boy, man, woman, girl, crowd, street, house

Materials & Techniques

photograph (as object name), digital photographic print, colour photograph

Artist

Rabab Ghazoul (1970 - )
Valleys Kids

Title

It’s Art But It’s Not

Date

2014

Medium

digital photographic print

Dimensions

height: 60.9 cm; width: 81.0 cm; depth: 5.0 cm

Acquisition

Purchased from the artist March 2021, through the Art XUK project 2020-

Provenance

The artist; from whom purchased by UK Government Art Collection, 22 March 2021

GAC number

18949