Perspective: With fixtures of war as their canvas

Dead blocks, they call them, the most visible legacy of the latest war in a city with a long history of wars.

For four years these vast concrete slabs have slowly crept through Baghdad, snaking along road, river and sidewalk as they shut out light and encircled ministries, palaces and districts.

Now, confronted by the inescapable presence and likely longevity of these blast walls, the city has hired two dozen Iraqi artists to soften their harsh gray solidity by using the city’s past to hide its present.

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