Opinions & Interviews

No art without stability in Iraq: artist

Sunday, February 7th 2010 5:01 PM
 


Mohammed nuri
Mosul, Feb. 7 (AKnews) The artist Mohammad Nouri Tabo said that the art in Mosul city will not recover in the absence of security and stability, calling for the departure from religion from politics. Tabbo talked about the dire situation that the Artists Association in Mosul is passing through in the interview done by the correspondent of The Independent National News Agency of Kurdistan (AKnews):

AKnews: Mohammad Nouri Tabo, is a well known name at the level of Nineveh, Iraq and the Arab world .. Where is he now?
Mouhammed Tabbo: I'm in Mosul city working for the artists union, and strive to serve this city, and every year after the fall of the former regime I presented several plays on some occasions, and my last work was (the key) in which I showed the tragedy of Iraq in general, as we called in the play to lift the gloom from Iraq and Mosul city, and to let the light shine in all Iraq.

 AKnews: What are the most prominent suffering of the artists in Mosul?
M.T: I show the artist as a bird that is flying in the sky, and this flight needs to be accompanied by appropriate conditions, because when there are clouds and lightning, the bird won't be able to fly, and we live in an atmosphere where there are storms and clouds , and the artist wants to serve the community .. And here I ask ,when will this work start? The answer is when there is stability ..  Mosul city after the fall of the regime began dripping from many sides and ways .. The new system that ruled the city and Iraq as a whole does not have a goal to save the city, and we have not seen any construction project or any cultural or literary result, and we look at that this city as a major crisis, although we as artists have performed works of art and plays , but I tell if the atmosphere is inappropriate, it can not continue, because the security situation experienced by the city is the only obstacle.
 
AKnews: What is the impact of Islamist political parties on the artists and their contribution to art?
M.T: I'm frankly saying that religion must be separated from politics, and if there were overlap between the two, we will lose the country .The religious must be devoted to the worship of God, away from the field of policy and its well known objectives, and if there were an interference of religion in politics, the city will fall, and we know that this will drop the work of the art.
 
AKnews: When was the "key' play made?
M.T: It was performed in spring hall in Mosul at the end of last March last and it is my last work.. And before it we have performed a about Iraq, too, and talked about the current circumstances, in addition to acts and plays that were made and offered to the city.

 
AKnews: How do you see the future of art in Mosul in the present situation?
M.T: Mosul is the mother of art, and the first theater that was established both at the Iraqi or Arabic level was in Mosul in 1880 .Currently we are in 2010 and after these years these works had stopped in Mosul as a result of political conditions and the result of the current circumstances in which we live, and we hope that there might be safety and security to live in stability so that the artwork and the art movement will revive and flourish, and this natural state of life, when there is a change, it is rejected at the beginning, but with time it becomes a natural condition that serves the community.
 
AKnews: What are your most prominent works?
M.T: My works are many, whether at the theater and television or in Cinema and other media institutions. I am proud of (clown) play made in 1972, and proud of (the factory) play written by the author Mahmoud Fathi, which tells the story of labor struggle in Iraq in 1971, I also made a play that talked about Arabism and was entitled by (martyrs are standing up) for the author, Nabil Badran, and was submitted in 1982 .. The last play, which was an invitation to corrupt and interests and brotherhood was "the key" play in 2009.
 
AKnews: Do you have any thing in dramas and series?
M.T: I have many plays and television series where I worked as a director, actor and a writer and perhaps the most prominent works that were representative is (Dolma) series, which discuss a social combination by addressing the way in which this popular recipe is made and was showed on Iraq, Kirkuk and Mosul televisions in 1976.
 
AKnews: What about your first works? Is there any brief overview about that?
M.T: my first job was in Mosul was factory play, in 1971,knowing that I was born in 1946, and I'm still working and I will continue to work as long as I live . Some consider me as the first TV director in Mosul, and all those who work in the field of television cameramen and directors were working according to my experience .. I lectured in the Faculty of Arts until last year at the Institute of Fine Arts ,and I will continue to give. Currently, I am the administrator of (audio and visual department) for the artists union in radio and television in Mosul.
 
AKnews: What about the salaries and conditions of retired artists in Mosul?
M.T: frankly, All the artists in the province were paid but in Mosul they got nothing. There is no retirement for artists at first, and secondly there was Nineveh acting band that belongs to culture and media was revived in all provinces except Mosul. This is a bad situation and I want to point out that the (financial) loans which were given to us, with regret, we are paying the interest of 8%, while currently the interest in most areas 5 or 2% and the amount that we had taken is 3 million dinars, and I say frankly that the situation of Artists Association in Mosul is very poor.

rn/gs Aknews 

 
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