The installation “Nationbuilding” is based on an image of burning oil wells in Iraq in 2004, where the USA ravaged and destroyed the country in its “War on Terror”, even though from the outset there was no evidence of any connection between Al Qaeda and the regime of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. The plans had been ready long before 9/11, and the war was waged for reasons of global strategy and for securing resources. Kalden transformed the shape of the black clouds of smoke into a horizontal landscape as a 3D model. Kalden's landscape model superficially and conceptually imagines structure, independence, and sovereignity. However, by transforming the sign of destruction in the form of air-polluting deep black clouds of smoke into a landscape, Kalden highlights the diabolical nature of the supposedly humanitarian “liberation” by the USA in the context of the “War on Terror.” “Regime change” as “nation building” with an estimated death toll of over one million. Kalden's fake “nation building” translates the disaster of this war, which violates international law, into an installation that finds an apt image for the cynicism of US intervention.

From: claire obscure, Kunstverein Speyer, 2018, Matthias Reichelt