Description

Cultural Writing. Middle Eastern Studies. As a child in Iraq, Wafaa Bilal experienced Saddam Hussein's rule, two wars, a bloody uprising and chaotic refugee camps in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. After becoming a professor and a successful artist in the United States, Bilal creates and stages "Domestic Tension," an unsettling interactive performance piece that confronts those in the comfort zone with the realities of life in a conflict zone. For one month, Bilal lives alone in a prison cell-sized room in the line of fire of a remote-controlled paintball gun and a camera that connects him to Internet viewers around the world. The project received overwhelming worldwide attention, garnering the praise of the Chicago Tribune, which called it "one of the sharpest works of political art to be seen in a long time," while Newsweek assessed the work as "breathtaking."