Adel Abidin

Common Vocabulary highlights the everyday language absorbed by Iraqi children in Baghdad following the American invasion. Words such as death, occupation, abduction, genocide, mass graves, and water shortages—terms no child should need to know—entered daily speech, reshaping childhood through conflict-driven necessity.

The installation presents these words on a series of flashcards, mimicking an educational learning tool. Alongside them, a video shows a seven-year-old girl of Iraqi origin learning to pronounce each term. What appears as a pedagogical exercise slowly reveals itself as a disturbing reflection on how violence infiltrates language, memory, and innocence.

As part of the installation, children of a similar age are invited to write the same words directly onto the wall using colored pastels. Small speakers attached to the wall play the original audio from the video, allowing the child’s voice to circulate through the space. The gesture extends the work beyond representation, transforming it into a shared, physical encounter where language is repeatedly learned, spoken, written, and absorbed.

Video installation view