Wafaa Bilal: Indulge Me

Bilal puts his body on the line to condemn the Iraq War, expose US-Iraq tensions and highlight immigrants’ struggles in America

Wafaa Bilal’s (born 1966) complex artistic practice spans a range of mediums and interests, including performance, time-based media, sculpture and interactive and digital technologies. He frequently incorporates―and risks―his own body in his pieces: allowing an audience to shoot him with paintballs or having a video camera drilled into his head. Accompanying his first major survey, at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, this critical volume covers the breadth of Bilal’s versatile career, centering on his performance practice. It highlights significant early works such as Domestic Tension (2007) and 3rdi (2010) alongside newer projects that investigate the relationship between Saddam Hussein, Iraqi history, the Iraq War and US–Middle East relations. Much like Bilal’s broader practice, this publication shows us what it means to consciously engage across cultures while highlighting the negative global implications of imperialism and exploitation.

This book was published in conjunction with Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago