Michael Rakowitz’s Return is both a business conducting trade with Iraq and a public art project exploring the inequities of war using dates as a surrogate for the human experience. Rakowitz re-opened Davisons & Co., based on the import/export business his grandparents operated in Baghdad, and is attempting to import Iraqi dates and other products (follow along on the store blog). Located in a storefront at 529 Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn, NY, the project provides free shipping for the Iraqi diaspora community, as well as other families who have military personnel stationed in Iraq, thereby creating a space where human concerns on both sides of the conflict can meet.

Along with the sweetest dates I’ve ever tasted, Michael served us traditional Iraqi foods cooked by his mother. Together they’ve started the Enemy Kitchen project, compiling their family’s recipes from Baghdad and teaching them to school chefs and students, getting the foods into New York public schools and turning it into a cooking show. They’ll team up again, serving dishes at the November 17 book launch for Creative Time’s Who Cares, exploring the viability of counter-cultural practice within the visual arts.

More Michael Rakowitz:

• NYFA’s Conversations… with Michael Rakowitz
• Creative Time’s - Who Cares
• michaelrakowitz.com
• MoMA SAFE exhibition 2005 featuring Rakowitz’s ParaSITE inflatable homeless shelters.

Jens Haaning’s Arabic Joke posters are all over New York through November, also part of Who Cares.

Technorati Tags: art, compassion, culture, food