Artist and researcher Alaa Younis has created a work titled "Battles in a Future Property" focusing on Haifa Street in Baghdad.
The project examines how modern urban ambitions can transform into sites of conflict. By analyzing the shift from planned growth to wartime reality, Younis highlights the tension between a city's envisioned future and its lived experience of violence.
Haifa Street serves as the central subject of the work, acting as a silent witness to the history of the Iraqi capital. Younis utilizes architectural archives to review urban projects originally conceived during the 1970s [1] and 1980s [2]. These projects were intended to modernize the city and build a vision of the future for Baghdad.
However, the reality of political instability and war altered the trajectory of these developments. The work illustrates how the street transitioned from a symbol of progress into a site of tension and struggle. This transformation is mapped both on the physical ground, and within the collective memory of the residents.
By revisiting these archives, Younis asks how modern visions for urban development collide with political realities. The work positions the architecture of Haifa Street not just as concrete and steel, but as a record of the conflict that shaped the region. The contrast between the optimistic blueprints of the previous decades and the scars of war provides a visual narrative of Iraq's complex history.
“Haifa Street serves as a silent witness to the history of the Iraqi capital.”
This artistic exploration reflects a broader trend in Middle Eastern contemporary art where urban planning is used as a lens to study political failure. By contrasting the high-modernist aspirations of the 1970s and 1980s with the devastation of subsequent wars, the work underscores how the built environment archives the trauma of a nation.
