Battleground: War Rugs from Afghanistan

Name: Battleground: War Rugs from Afghanistan
Start: 2008-04-23T00:00:00-04:00
End: 2009-01-27T23:59:59-05:00

The terror of bombs falling from the sky and landmines exploding from the earth is revealed in Battleground: War Rugs from Afghanistan. Through three decades of international and civil war, Afghans have borne witness to disaster by weaving unprecedented images of battle and weaponry into their rugs. This exhibition presents 118 rugs that tell the story of the Afghan world turned upside down.

Type: Exhibition

Date: Apr 23, 2008 - Jan 27, 2009

Curated by: Max Allen

Back to What’s On

Installation view (2008) Photo: Jill Kitchener

Additional Information

When the USSR invaded Afghanistan in 1979, Afghan weavers found their world turned upside down, the sky and the earth thick with weaponry. On their rugs flowers turned into cluster bombs, birds turned into airplanes. The disaster continued with ten years of brutal civil war. And it continues today as international forces battle in an ancient land that has exploded.

Battleground: War Rugs from Afghanistan presents catastrophe turned into art.