Paper short abstract:

Iraqi artists in exile belonging to the "sixties" and "seventies" generations are providing portraits of a lost cosmopolitan Baghdad. By analysing these narratives from a socio-anthropological perspective, this paper explore the interactions between cities, exile, creation and cosmopolitanism.

Paper long abstract:

In the frame of my doctoral research focusing on Iraqi artists in exile in Middle Eastern and European cities, emerged a specific use of "cosmopolitanism". Narratives enunciated from outside by artists belonging to the so-called "sixties" and "seventies" generations tend to depict a period of peaceful cohabitation between all the components of the society in an effervescent cultural life. Most of these individuals have been living outside Iraq for more than thirty years. Both the city and the atmosphere are described as "cosmopolitan." The adjective "cosmopolitan" evokes "peace", "diversity", and a certain sense of "creativity." Has this lost Baghdad existed once? The use of the term "cosmopolitanism" within the narratives emerges through memories, meaning through an appropriation of the past from exile. Therefore, the relation between urban spaces as agents and exile in artistic spheres seem to reveal cosmopolitan processes. What do these personal "Baghdadi narratives" embedded in a certain feeling of nostalgia tell us about the interactions between cities, exile, creation and cosmopolitan dynamics?

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