Kurdish artist sees music as means to connect continents

AMMAN — Using “his pinkie” as his weapon, Kurdish multimedia artist Hiwa seeks to connect countries and culture through music.

Based in Berlin, Hiwa launched various projects and one of them, Chicago Boys (while we were singing they were dreaming), began in April 2010 and has since gathered artists from different countries and continents.

“Music connects divided communities; therefore we want [the] new generation to understand the world in general. We should put together different parts of [the] politically divided Middle East,” he told The Jordan Times in a recent interview.

Born in 1975 in Sulaymaniya, Hiwa emigrated from Iraq in 1996 when political instability and fractional clashes “became unbearable”.

He first studied flamenco dance guitar at Rotterdam Conservatory, then visual arts at the University of Mainz, near Frankfurt.

A total of 117 artists worldwide are involved in Chicago Boys project, including 15 from Jordan, which was the first destination in the group’s Middle East tour.

Hiwa said he is on a mission to expand and attract enough musical and visual artists in the region who would continue to implement the project’s goal when he returns to Berlin.

The project consists of a debate club and concerts that integrate both professionals and amateurs.

“Our goal is to involve the local community in our projects through interactive workshops. This approach is necessary when working in large geographic, political and multidisciplinary communities — where different knowledge, competencies, cultures and skills blend together,” Hiwa said.

“Political forms are used to describe art and the art is used to describe politics,” he added.

“The project also tackles functioning in a foreign cultural environment typical for immigrants.”

The themes of immigration and detachment hit closer to home with the multidisciplinary artist.

When going back to Kurdistan he feels detached from places he knew.

“Each time I visit my birthplace I feel external amnesia and complete depersonalisation,” he said.

The name Chicago Boys is “carefully chosen” — combining a neoliberal Chicago school, which shaped political economy from early 1970s until the first decades of the 21st century, and pop musicians from Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan and Lebanon prior to the 1979 Iranian revolution.

Hiwa named the project after the well-known school of economics founded by Milton Friedman, though for him neoliberalism has a negative connotation.

“Liberalism tends to atomise every society and disintegrate the bond between people and their culture. Despite its positives, liberalism has many negative effects on traditional relations within the nation and family,” said the artist.

“[A] more humane face of capitalism would be preferable,” Hiwa added.

The group’s music covers 1970s hits by Farsi diva Googoosh and Ahmad Zahir, “the Elvis of the Afghan pop scene”, who died in a car crash in 1979, according to Hiwa.

To symbolically measure “the weight” of his band, the artist puts members on the scales before the performance.

The core musicians are guitarists, bass guitarist, drummers, male and female vocalists, bouzouki and keyboard players.

Acknowledging that a tough road lies ahead for a project with ambitions that span continents, Hiwa remains optimistic.

“Despite setbacks and current political instability in the region I’m positive that the seed I sowed will flourish into something creative and long lasting.”