Tarkib Baghdad Contemporary Art Institute is a platform for the education, production and presentation of contemporary art, dedicated to promoting emerging Iraqi artists. It was founded in 2015 by an independent artist collective by the same name and continues to unite artists from different art disciplines and different ages. Tarkib is committed to fostering creativity in the arts in Iraq, to providing artistic opportunities for Baghdad’s diverse communities, and to engaging art to alleviate the living conditions and enhance the communication among the community.
Since 2015, Tarkib collective has organized the annual Tarkib Baghdad Contemporary Art Festival. In 2017 it opened the creative arts centre Bait Tarkib, the only centre of its kind in Baghdad with a broad and high-quality program of artistic and cultural events, trainings and workshops. Furhter, the collective has been organizing Baghdad Walk, a group exhibition in public space, since 2018.
Artistically speaking, Tarkib’s purpose is to talk about content, form, and function of art and its role in society: “We do art because we want to do art.” Socially speaking, Tarkib aims to support the Iraqi youth to express themselves and to encourage social cohesion among the youth, especially women and vulnerable individuals.
