A sports hall in Baghdad, a football team, and the traces of a turbulent history: in Hadaf Tarikhi (هدف تاريخي) – A Goal with a History, Louis-Cyprien Rials reflects on community, memory, and the strength to move forward after war and loss.

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A sports hall in Baghdad. Designed by Le Corbusier as part of a utopian sports city that was never completed. A building that has endured political upheavals, wars, and changing regimes. Decades after its construction, it is now used by the Iraqi National Amputee Football Team. 

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When Louis-Cyprien Rials first encountered the team, a long-term engagement began. Through conversations, shared journeys, and the trust of the players, Hadaf Tarikhi (هدف تاريخي) – A Goal with a History emerged: a multifaceted work about memory, loss, and the question of how people continue their lives after war. 

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At the heart of the exhibition is a film that follows the players on and off the field. Rials portrays men whose lives have been shaped by conflict without reducing them to their injuries. He encounters them as athletes, friends, teammates, and travellers. The film speaks of community, ambition, and dignity, while also revealing the traces violence leaves on bodies, cities, and landscapes. 

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The French artist Louis-Cyprien Rials (*1981, Paris) lived in Iraq between 2021 and 2023. His work develops through long-term encounters and an intensive engagement with the places where he lives and works. Rather than viewing historical events from a distance, he focuses on the ways in which they continue to shape everyday life. 

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A key starting point for his research was the Baghdad Gymnasium, the sports hall designed by Le Corbusier. As the only realized element of a sports city that was never completed, the building was finished after the architect's death and later served military purposes. Today, it is a place where different layers of Iraqi history overlap. For Rials, the architecture becomes a silent witness to aspiration, interruption, destruction, and ongoing transformation. 

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Alongside the film, the exhibition includes photographs and a series of football jerseys assembled from garments collected across different regions and communities of Iraq. Sunni, Shia, Kurdish, Turkmen, and Yazidi references are literally stitched together. The seams remain visible; the ruptures are not concealed. 

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In Iraq, a football jersey is often far more than sportswear. It can signify origin, belonging, and political identity. In Rials' work, the jerseys become fragments of a social reality shaped equally by diversity and conflict. The reconstructed garments recall bodies marked by scars and a society that must continuously negotiate new forms of coexistence. 

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For Kunstverein Dresden, the exhibition is embedded within a large-scale scenographic installation. The exhibition spaces are transformed into an imagined stadium, where personal narratives, architectural history, and contemporary politics converge in a layered reflection on belonging, memory, and the ways people continue living after war and destruction.

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Special Thanks

Louis-Cyprien Rials would like to express his special gratitude to Diane Lebel, Ali Qawoogha, and Mohamed Al-Najjar. Their generosity, trust, and support accompanied the research and realization of Hadaf Tarikhi (هدف تاريخي) – A Goal with a History in exceptional ways and played a vital role in bringing the project into being.

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Exhibition Information

Exhibition Dates: 13 November 2026 – 16 January 2027
Venue: Kunstverein Dresden, Dresden
Curator: Adina Rieckmann
Scenography: Marko Göhre 

Soundcollage: Bony Stoev

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