Between War and Peace (2015)

The series reconstructs Franz Roubaud’s 19th-century battle paintings of the Caucasian War to critically re-examine the region’s contemporary landscape of conflict. Through the strategy of artistic reenactment, the artist recreates Roubaud’s dynamic cavalry scenes while replacing historical details with modern elements — 20th-century military uniforms and firearms engage in a visual dialogue with the classic compositions of battle painting. This deliberate anachronism highlights the contradiction between the official end of the war and its lingering impact on collective identity. Functioning as a media-archaeological gesture, the project extracts narratives from imperial painting archives, reframing them as relevant to postcolonial discourse on the Caucasus.

The project was developed during the Alanica Art Residency, where Ilyas was invited by curator Nav Haq (M HKA, Antwerp)