Hiwa K: "The Bell Project" | Art21 "Extended Play"

[Hiwa K: "The Bell Project"]

[SOUND OF BELL RINGING]

I don't like expensive artworks.

Instead of spending eighty thousand Euros,

you can maintain many families in
Iraq or Africa

or other countries.

I didn't have a good conscience to
spend so much money on "The Bell Project".

[VIDEO VOICE OVER IN KURDISH]

--These are all from the U.S.
They are parts of cabins and jeeps etc. ...

--These are parts of their cars.

--These are pipes from their cabines.

--This one is armor of the U.S. military cars.

--Those ones too.

--That pile is all from U.S. military as well.

--Weapons from most of the countries
come here.

--They all come back to me.

I was working with somebody.

He's called Nazhad,

an entrepreneur from Iraq
who's melting weapons.

He has contracts with the American army.

He's collecting all kinds of weapons.

He melts them and he makes bricks.

He classified them.

Categorized them.

Where they come from.

When they were sold to Iraq.

By which country.

[VIDEO VOICE OVER IN KURDISH]
--Moreover there are more than 40 countries
that sold weapons to Iraq and Iran.

--As far as I can recall their names.

--U.S.A.,

--Italy,

--Germany,

--Japan,

--China...etc.

--From the developing world as well.

--Also Turkey.

--I cannot recall all their names now.

--Most of them were selling weapons
to Iraq and Iran at the same time.

These weapons are made by the West

and sent to our countries.

Nazhad is somehow melting it into
possibilities of transformation.

[VIDEO VOICE OVER IN ITALIAN]
--This is the material from Nazhad.

--Now we will analyze it in the laboratory

--to determine the percentage of impurity,
and to verify whether or not it is radioactive

--because it arrives from a country
in war and you never know.

--Everything seems to be here, 300kg,
exactly what we need to make the bell.

In Europe, they always used to melt bells
into weapons.

Many, many thousands of bells were melted
into weapons.

So I was just thinking about the circulation
of materials,

and how one could swap this process

and do it the other way around--

to make a bell out of it again.

So this bell is very simple.

The work is very accessible.

And that's what I like.

If I like this project,

if I accept it,

that's the only reason.

As artists, we are always addressing ourselves,

or we are addressing this difficult language

which was not accessible for normal people.

And that's our problem in art, I say.

I ask many people, they say,

"I'm sorry, we don't like to go to museums,
to exhibitions."

I never go to exhibitions or to museums either,

because also it's too much for me,
this kind of art.

It's too difficult for me.

That's why I say I have an affair with knowledge,

I don't have a relationship with knowledge.

Because I don't want to overdose my work
with philosophy.

Each one or two years I go home,

I make a small presentation to my family with
my new works.

When my mom understands, I am happy.

I know that, people who understand.

And that's why I like the simplicity.

I think I need that.