AL-QA’IDA TORTURE DEVICES
(Rotterdam: Al-Qa’ida Torture Devices at Roodkapje – Center for urban culture, art and design, 2007)

Research on the relation between torture devices used by Al-Qa’ida, and household appliances exported by the west. These appliances were selected according to a hand drawn torture manual found in 2007 by American soldiers in a so-called “Al-Qa’ida Safe House” in Iraq. At the same location, two prisoners were found who presumably had been tortured according to the methods described in the manual. The selected products were exhibited accompanied by the titles and usage as mentioned in the manual, such as “drilling hands” in case of the drill, and “eye removal” in case of the awl. Thus, the exhibition addressed the ideological tensions underlying apparently neutral western consumption products.

Concept and production in cooperation with Vincent W.J. van Gerven Oei