Al-Mutanabbi before and after/in words/before and after in words
By: Sabina-Mariana Stan
Contributors: Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition; Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Artists' Books Collection (Columbia University. Rare Book and Manuscript Library)
Publisher: [publisher not identified]
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Bucharest, Romania]
Language: mul
Subjects: Violence; Pictorial works; Booksellers and bookselling; Bombings; Iraq War, 2003-2011; Protest movements; Books and reading in art; Intellectual life; Social conditions; Censorship; Terrorism in art; In art; War and civilization; Vehicle bombs; Visual literature; Specimens; Cultural property; Destruction and pillage; Artists' books; Al-Mutanabbi Street Coalition
Description: This collection supports and promotes awareness to the important mission and framework of the Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition's focus on the lasting power of the written word and the arts in support of the free expression of ideas, the preservation of shared cultural spaces, and the importance of responding to attacks, both overt and subtle, on artists, writers, and academics working under oppressive regimes or in zones of conflict, despite the destruction of that literary/cultural content.

"The three books I have made represent my journey through discovering Al-Mutanabbi Street. The first book is my first impression of what I have read about what happened on Al-Mutanabbi Street in 2007, and is a story told in images of the street, before and after the attack. The second book is a blending of languages, because I consider that knowing the language gets you closer to the culture of a country. I chose three: Romanian (my native language), Arabic (the official language in Iraq) and English, because it's an international language. The third book is a combination of the first two and shows what I retained from this experience. I like to believe in a better future, and it depends on us to make it so, and for that, we should cherish the present and remember the past, so that, in this case especially, we don't repeat it"--The Book Arts at the Centre for Fine Print Research, UK website.

Sabina-Mariana Stan trained at the National College of Computer Science, Tudor Vianu 2003, and the National University of Arts Bucharest, Faculty of Decorative Arts and Design, Tapestry 2010. Recent exhibitions have included the Lasi Art Museum; Art Galleries, Focsani; Parliament House, Brancusi Hall, Bucharest; Museum of Art, Constanta.
Notes: On March 5th, 2007, a car bomb exploded on al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad. Al-Mutanabbi Street is located in a mixed Shia-Sunni area. More than 30 people were killed and more than 100 wounded. Al-Mutanabbi Street, the historic center of Baghdad bookselling, holds bookstores and outdoor bookstalls, cafes, stationery shops, and even tea and tobacco shops. It has been the longstanding heart and soul of the Baghdad literary and intellectual community for centuries. In response to the attack, a San Francisco poet and bookseller, Beau Beausoleil, rallied a community of international artists and writers to produce a collection of letterpress-printed broadsides (poster-like works on paper), artists' books (unique works of art in book form), and an anthology of writing, all focused on expressing solidarity with Iraqi booksellers, writers and readers. The coalition of contributing artists calls itself Al-Mutanabbi Street Starts Here Coalition.

Gift; Beau Beausoleil; 2019-2020.