“Ark Re-Imagined connects the origins of culture with contemporary civilization and in so doing champions humanity’s capacity to overcome adversity through collaboration and creativity rather than division and superstition”
Rashad Salim is an expeditionary artist and designer with a particular interest in the history and development of culture and technology as reflected in ancient boats, headgear, printmaking techniques (Mesopotamian cylinder seals) and voyaging. He studied at The Institute of Fine Arts, Baghdad and St Martin’s in London.
Born in Khartoum Sudan (1957) to a German Mother and an artist diplomat Father (Nizar Salim d.1982 posts include China, Sweden, Libya and ex Yugoslavia ) from a well known Iraqi family of artists, Rashad considers himself a 'EurArab' and has travelled extensively since birth though not yet across the Atlantic. As an adult and practicing artist he lived and worked gaining insight and inspiration in Iraq, Morocco, Yemen and presently in London, UK.
In 1977-78, as a crew member on Thor Heyerdahl's Tigris expedition, he travelled on a reed boat from Iraq across the Indian Ocean. Since 2015, through the Ark Re-imagined project, he has worked to protect and revive the endangered craft heritage of Iraq, particularly its ancient boatbuilding techniques. He is now preparing to present the Ark Re-imagined as Iraq's National Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2021.
© Rashad Salim, courtesy Nik Wheeler (photography in Iraq); Wolfgang Moroder (photography in Venice.
