Adalet R. Garmiany

Adalet R. Garmiany is a Kurdish Iraqi artist, curator and Chief Executive of ArtRole, a UK based contemporary arts organization developing international cultural exchanges with the Middle East. Adalet has been forging important cultural and artistic relationships between the UK, USA and Iraq, facilitating artistic dialogue, exchange and mutual support.

Adalet has inspired a number of artists including Richard Wilson, Anne Bean, the US Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas, to work with him on his intercultural projects and introduced them to Iraqi Kurdistan by organizing cross cultural visits, dialogues and exhibitions. Richard Wilson’s seminal installation 20:50 was shown as part of the Kurdish region’s first ever international event Post-War Art& Culture Festival 7-9 November 2009. See www.artrole.org

Adalet’s vision is to develop greater cultural understanding, debate and co-operation between the West and Iraq with a determination to bring about social change through art,

Adalet, an internationally practicing artist in performance, installation and experimental/music is based in the UK where he delivers presentations and workshops highlight the value of cultural exchange particularly with the Middle East.

In Iraqi Kurdistan he was a painter and sculptor, lecturer in art and art critic as well as contributing to different local and international arts and human rights groups, NGO’s and other cultural organisations. He performed in a Qadri Sufi group as a Dervish Def (Kurdish drum) player, seeking spirituality through Sufi music and activities, which have influenced his current performance and installation practice.  Ritualized actions, chants, sounds, musical instruments and natural materials such as stone, hair and fire are incorporated to create a visible, sensible, tangible and spiritual experience for the audience by exposing them to his universe and exposing them to new experiences and new ideas. The work is mainly site-specific and participatory, influenced from Zoroastrianism, Dervish and Sufism as well as contemporary art movements. Adalet has worked with number of renowned international artists such us Mona Hatoum, Paula Rego, Guillermo Gómez-Peña, Fakir Musafa, Susan Meiselas, Anne Bnen and Richard Wilson. www.adaletg.net

Adalet believes that art has to provoke emotions and thoughts and help us to interrogate this complex world, His work re-interprets cultural ideas from Kurdistan and the Middle East and places them in the context of a globalised world with all the complexities arising from political, historical, religious and spiritual perspectives.