NOMA curators will be present to discuss artist Wafaa Bilal’s interactive installation 168:01 in the exhibition Bodies of Knowledge. The work is comprised of a large bookshelf filled with blank, white books which symbolizes the burning and looting of libraries in Baghdad during the 2003 American invasion of Iraq. Museum visitors are invited to transform the shelves from austere white to color by donating a book that will be shipped to the College of Fine Arts at the University of Baghdad at the close of the exhibition.

Throughout the run of Bodies of Knowledge, Mahmoud Chouki will create a new musical composition and series of site-specific performances for the exhibition, collectively titled Safar, that explore how music can speak across cultural divides to envision new forms of dialogue between East and West. Chouki will be joined by New Orleans-based surrealist chamber folk singer/songwriter and harpist Jesse Autumn.