Sculptor at work in war-torn Iraq

Nida Kadhim is creating a series of statues of prominent, largely nationalist Iraqi intellectuals, artists, poets, and writers.

from the August 14, 2007 edition

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Artists were even hired to paint scenes of ancient Mesopotamia on the blast walls. Guards have been posted at the park to prevent a repeat of what happened two years ago when looters made away with benches and sprinklers right after another US-funded renovation.

The park remains off limits to families from outside the neighborhood and the Western tenants are balking at removing the obstacles, says Mr. Shaikhli, adding that reopening all of Abu Nawas Street would be "a tremendous psychological boost for Baghdadis."

Kadhim is not discouraged. "One day, Baghdad will return to its old self as long as there are people who create and build," he says. "It must."

Spearheading other artistic ventures

Kadhim, a former Communist and Shiite who was expelled from his job at the Ministry of Culture in 1976 and had a brother hanged for evading conscription during the Iran-Iraq War, says he's willing to forgive former regime elements who are sincere about starting a new chapter in society.

He's spearheading efforts to restore other monuments like giving the statue of King Shahrayar, lounging on the southern end of Abu Nawas, back his hand that was chopped off by religious fanatics last year because it held a wine glass. King Shahrayar was a central figure in the fables of 1001 Nights. He's helping the family of Abdel-Muhsin al-Sadoun, a prime minister in the 1920s during British rule, replicate the original statue of him that once stood in the median of a thoroughfare bearing his name. It was swept up in the looting spree of 2003 and then replaced by a dwarfish and flimsy-looking version.

Preserving Saddam-era statues, too

He's also trying to convince the Shiite-led government of Nouri al-Maliki to preserve some monuments from the era of Saddam Hussein, who had a penchant for grandiose and heroic symbolism.

Two of four massive busts of Saddam in a combination of Western and Arab military attire that once adorned one of his palaces in the coalition-secured Green Zone, renamed the International Zone, could, along with other relics of the dictator's era, go into another park along the lines of the graveyard of Soviet statues in Moscow's Gorky Park, reckons Kadhim.

"It could be something for the collective memory just to remind people of Saddam's brutality," he says. But Kadhim says that hard-line Shiites in the government, who are bent on eradicating all vestiges of the Saddam era and remain highly suspicious of plots to turn back the clock, are demanding that the US military hand over the busts sitting in the courtyard of the palace, which now serves as a base called Prosperity.

Outside the International Zone, whatever was not removed by a municipal body tasked with clearing remnants of the previous regime was blown up by mobs as happened two years ago with the "March of the Baath Party" memorial not far from the National Museum. Municipal workers were busy over the weekend painting the memorial's empty pedestal with scenes of galloping white horses and maidens.

As reconciliation evades Iraq's feuding political class, and by extension many segments of the population, Kadhim's attitude may be a glimmer of hope that it might be possible one day. He hopes Iraqis will overcome fear and "start talking to each other again."

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