How to investigate about vampires

After the death of General Qasem Soleimani in the first days of this year, news outlets around the world reported that his body was identified not through DNA analysis, but through the distinctive ring he always wore. The image of his severed hand, with its striking red stone, quickly became iconic, circulating across headlines and social media. In those reports, the body itself was almost absent, erased from the narrative. Instead, the ring became a symbol, an object that stood in for the person and his death.

Qasem Soleimani was one of the most powerful figures in Iran, a key strategist and commander of the Quds Force. His assassination in Baghdad was not just a political event but also a media spectacle. The visual focus on the hand and the ring created a myth-like atmosphere, one that seemed to suggest that death was not entirely final—that something of him persisted, materially and symbolically, through this object.

Similar stories have emerged in the Middle East. The death of Izzat Ibrahim Al-Douri, a leading figure of Saddam Hussein’s regime, was announced multiple times, only for him to reappear alive. In another instance, the portrait of Saddam Hussein was mysteriously spotted on a street corner in Tel Aviv years after his execution. These recurring narratives of death, return, and haunting invite us to think of these figures less as individuals and more as specters—political vampires who refuse to disappear completely.

This project proposes a “vampire investigation” into the assassination of Soleimani and the network of images, rumors, and myths that followed. We will examine the symbolism of the hand, the ring, and the absent body, and use these elements to create a series of artworks, objects, images, installations, and texts. By doing so, we aim to explore how power survives death, how media transforms bodies into icons, and how the Middle East becomes a stage where mad stories is constantly resurrected.