Students from the Institute of Fine Arts perform in elaborate fantasy costumes designed for a show on desertification at the Iraq Book Fair in Baghdad — photo by 964media.
Fantasy performance at Iraq Book Fair warns of desertification threat
BAGHDAD – Students from the Institute of Fine Arts staged a fantasy-themed performance at the Iraq International Book Fair, using witches, angels and spring characters to dramatize the threat of pollution and desertification in Iraq.
Wearing elaborate costumes they designed themselves, the students portrayed a battle between good and evil that drew crowds of visitors on the fair’s second day.
Rasha Saddam, head of the institute’s design department, told 964media the show marked a shift from previous years. “We presented a new show that differs from previous years, which focused on heritage, governorates, and civilizations. Today’s show was ‘fantasy,’ and we wanted to deliver a message about the pollution disaster we are witnessing in Iraq,” she said. “We portrayed how Iraq was once better, then desertification came through the ‘evil witches’ who attacked Iraq, but in the end Iraq will prevail and return to its goodness, greenery, and its rivers, the Tigris and Euphrates.”
Student Ayat Mohammed said the performance centered on the struggle between spring and forces of destruction. “Today we presented a show about spring, and the devils and their fight against the greenery represented by the angels. My role was ‘spring,’ and in the end we delivered a message about how good triumphs over evil, and how the angels defeated the devils,” she said.
Another design student, Hanine Majid, said the team wanted to push audiences to think about their own role in protecting the environment. “Our show was ‘fantasy.’ We wanted to send a message to people to stay away from the dangers of desertification. We combined good, which is ‘spring,’ and evil, which is ‘desertification,’ and in the end good will win. The message is for people to plant vegetation and trees to combat desertification,” she said.
Majid added that all costumes were prepared by students with support from Saddam, and that the makeup was also done by the students. “I have faced some difficulties since I am a third-year student,” she said. “I also want to send a message that art still exists. I always hear people belittle the Institute of Fine Arts as if it is not a good specialty, but I believe everything in life is ‘art.’”
Iraq is grappling with an escalating desertification crisis, with officials warning that nearly 39 percent of the country’s land is at risk and that more than half of agricultural areas are deteriorating. The Ministry of Agriculture has launched programs that include trenches, earthen berms and drought-resistant tree planting to slow advancing sand dunes, stabilize fragile areas such as Al-Fajr in Dhi Qar and Baiji in Salah al-Din, and expand forest projects using more than 500,000 seedlings. Authorities say such measures are urgently needed as Iraq faces recurring dust storms, shrinking green cover and declining river levels.