Bringing the Stories Home: Wafaa Bilal’s War on the Public Narrative of War

• Main Author: James Hicks
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Editorial Delirio 2012-11-01
• Series: Caracteres: Estudios Culturales y Críticos de la Esfera Digital
• Subjects: public narratives; Wafaa Bilal; war representation; Domestic Tension; Iraq war
• Online Access: http://revistacaracteres.net/revista/vol1n2noviembre2012/bringing-the-stories-home-wafaa-bilals-war-on-the-public-narrative-of-war/

The aim of the present article is to examine some artistic representations that persuade us to read the complexity of the narratives of war. To focus this issue, we will analyze Wafaa Bilal’s Domestic Tension exhibition, work which could be defined as a translation of war self-experience into an artistic frame. In this context Domestic Tension configures a space to examine the effects of war violence in modern societies. Under this perspective, art become more than a simple and empty representation of war, but further more the only possible response to human violence.