Rifat Chadirji, l’un des grands du monde arabe, vient de mourir le 10 Avril du coronavirus. Une triste nouvelle qui m’a profondément touchée.
Je le rencontrais parfois, se promenant avec sa femme sur la plage déserte de la région de Halat. Que de fois j’ai été temptée de lui adresser au moins un bonjour, mais je me retenais car une icone sacrée ne peut être approchée mais vénérée. Je me suis souvent demandée pourquoi les grands meurent-ils mais rien n’est éternel à part le Bon Dieu et seuls leurs travaux rendent leur souvenir éternel.
Ce grand architecte qui était né en 1926 à Bagdad dans une famille influente puisque son père, Kamil Chadirji, jouait un rôle central dans la vie politique irakienne en tant que fondateur et président du Parti national démocrate, avait terminé sa formation d’architecte en 1952 et commença à travailler sur ce qu’il appellait ses expériences architecturales. Son travail s’inspirait des caractéristiques de l’architecture régionale irakienne, mais il souhaitait également réconcilier la tradition avec les besoins sociaux contemporains
En 1974, à l’âge de 48 ans, il est emprisonné à vie pour avoir refusé de travailler sur un projet financé par le gouvernement pendant la présidence d’Ahmad Hassan al Bakr. Cependant, après avoir passé près de deux ans dans la très célèbre prison d’Abou Ghraib, il est libéré par Saddam Hussein déjà au pouvoir car ce dernier souhaitait que le meilleur architecte irakien supervise les préparatifs d’une conférence internationale qui doit se tenir à Bagdad en 1983 et contribue aux plans généraux visant à donner un nouveau visage à Bagdad. Pendant son emprisonnement, il écrivit un livre sur l’architecture intitulé Al Ukhaidir et le Crystal Palace, en utilisant des documents que sa femme avait introduits en contrebande à Abu Ghraib. Le livre est décrit comme un “ouvrage fondateur” sur le thème de l’architecture irakienne.
Dans les années 1980, Rifat Chadirji devient conseiller du maire, un rôle qui l’amène à superviser tous les projets de reconstruction à Bagdad. En1983, il quitte l’Irak pour occuper un poste universitaire à Harvard. Quelques années plus tard, à son retour à Bagdad, il est attristé par la détérioration de la ville. Les époux Chadirji décident de quitter définitivement l’Irak pour s’installer à Londres tout en séjournant de temps en temps au Liban, près de la mer. Avec son père, il photographie une grande partie de Bagdad ainsi que la région, plus vaste, englobant l’Irak et la Syrie. Ils craignent que l’architecture et les monuments régionaux ne soient perdus à cause du nouveau développement lié au boom pétrolier. En 1995, il publie un livre des précieuses photographies de son père.
Le poste de son père en tant qu’homme politique lui permet d’entrer en contact avec des personnes et d’accéder à des endroits qui auraient pu être difficiles d’accèder pour d’autres photographes.
Malheureusement, il meurt des suites du covid-19 à Londres le 10 avril 2020, à l’âge de 93 ans où il fut incinéré et le Premier ministre irakien Mustafa Al-Kadhimi ainsi que le président irakien Barham Salih lui rendirent hommage.
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