Abidin Travels functions as a fictional travel agency offering enticing one-way “adventure holidays” to Baghdad. The work presents two contrasting videos: an animated commercial promoting a chance to win a vacation in Baghdad, and a second video composed of censored news footage narrated by an American woman welcoming visitors to the city. Together they reference the dissonance between propaganda and lived reality during the U.S. occupation of Iraq.
The installation expands into a full travel-agency environment with posters, illuminated light boxes, multilingual brochures, and a ticket-booking station. Visitors are invited to book a one-way e-ticket on-site.
Brochures are printed in eight languages: Arabic, English, Chinese, French, Finnish, Italian, Spanish, and Swedish.
Video clips
Posters, logo, ticket station, and brochures
Brochures & one-way Boarding Pass
Video stills
Details:
- Mixed media interactive installation
- Two-channel video installation
- Dur.: video 1: 02:00 min
- Dur.: video 2: :04:33 min
- Format: stereo | stereo | 4:3
- MAC computer, keyboard
- Tech.: David Knight
- Voice over: J. Redman
- Screen, brochures, posters
- Two light boxes.
- With thanks to Sam Shingler