QARADAKI AS PRIME MINISTER
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Qaradaki as Prime Minister, 2016
Installation: photo,  size: 90 x 136 cm.
Wall installation of drawing, technique: ink on wall
Installation views: Galleri Nordnorge, Harstad & outdoor views
Photo credit: Ulla Schildt 

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Qaradaki as Prime Minister is an art project that examines the relationship between power, representation, and belonging in contemporary democratic societies. Through photography, video, installation, and performative staging, I place myself in the role of Prime Minister in order to question who is allowed to represent the nation, and which ideas still shape our understanding of leadership, identity, and legitimacy. The project is rooted in my own biography. I came to Norway as a political refugee from Kurdistan in 1999, and have since lived, studied, and worked here as an artist. By placing my own body in the state’s highest symbolic position, the project explores the tension between formal inclusion and a genuinely experienced sense of belonging.

What happens when a person with a refugee background is presented as the country’s highest political leader? Why are some forms of representation perceived as natural, while others may still seem unfamiliar? Which invisible boundaries continue to exist in societies that describe themselves as open and democraticThrough staged situations, official portraits, press conferences, speeches, diplomatic meetings, and public appearances, the project constructs a visual universe drawn from the language of politics and state imagery. The work does not seek satire, but rather a realistic shift in perspective, inviting viewers to reflect on their own reactions and expectations.

The project addresses urgent questions related to migration, national identity, and democratic representation, and speaks not only to Norway, but to broader European developments. At the same time, it continues central themes within my practice: identity, exile, collective memory, and structures of power.
Ultimately, Qaradaki as Prime Minister is about which images a society is capable of accepting, which futures we are able to imagine, and who is allowed to step forward as a representative of the collective.