Two artists speak on Conflict and Compassion – the theme of the third Asia Triennial Manchester

The Imperial War Museum North in Manchester, England is the central setting for the only Asian Art Triennial outside the Asia Pacific region. We talk to the British-Pakistani artist Shezad Dawood and the Palestinian artist Bashir Makhoul to get a glimpse of what's on display.

The Palestinian artist Bashir Makhoul’s The Genie is part of his Enter Ghost Exit Ghost series. Joel Chester Fildes

At first glance, the Imperial War Museum North (IWMN) in Manchester, England, might seem to be a strange central setting for the only Asian Art Triennial outside the Asia Pacific region. Even one of the participating artists lets a slightly awkward laugh slip when we ask him about his contribution.

“I was totally intrigued,” admits Shezad Dawood. “I mean, I find it such a crazy anachronism that Britain should maintain the title ‘Imperial War Museum’ when so many of the problems we face in the world today are because of war and imperialism.”

But the British-Pakistani artist’s very next thought mirrors the whole point of this third Asia Triennial Manchester (ATM), which gathers together more than 50 artists from disparate parts of “Asia” – from Palestine to Afghanistan – across 12 venues. The theme is “Conflict and Compassion”, and Dawood – who exhibited at Art Dubai this year – set about trying to coerce people who might traditionally be scared off by galleries into reflecting more deeply about how art can deliver a plea for cultural understanding.

"We do conflict just fine, so I'm looking towards the compassion part," he says of his piece Babalon Rising. "I've watched with varying degrees of horror as the cultural materials from the Middle East have been smashed apart – be it the Baghdad Museum being looted, or the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan being destroyed.

“So I’ve acquired a collection of 9th- to 14th-century pottery fragments from Mesopotamia, Syria and Iran, and made a plinth for them to sit on at IWMN. Pottery next to the tanks – the museum’s display is a very interesting juxtaposition of feminine against masculine, and the plinth will sit on a vintage kilim, again speaking of the Silk Road and the quietness of daily life.”

While Dawood’s work is an understated reflection on the cost of war, the Palestinian artist Bashir Makhoul is understandably more overt.

Makhoul's Enter Ghost Exit Ghost series, in which he recreated an Arab town using cardboard boxes, has wowed audiences in Beijing and Venice – but for ATM, it takes on a whole new name and meaning.

The boxes, this time, hang suspended in the air. Instead of featuring windows and doors, as in Venice, the cardboard has been crudely slashed, 15,000 times.

"I prefer to say they've been stabbed," he says of The Genie. "Opening wounds rather than opening doors. But it made sense for them to be up in the air this time, as there's the idea of suspense, which is how things are in war zones: up in the air, unstable. It adds to the sense of instability and being out of control."

The cardboard box itself is an inspired material to work with – loaded with cultural meaning, such as its sense of impermanence, its connections with the homeless or even a concealment of secrets. Makhoul has to employ a whole team to put together an exhibition such as this.

“There are more than 15,000 ‘stab wounds’, so it’s better to call me the architect rather than the maker,” he says.

But, like Dawood, he hopes that his work might make people think a bit more profoundly about the issue of conflict in the Middle East.

“I hope my piece will open that process up,” he says. “And that’s why ATM is important: artists outside of the western tradition, from Anish Kapoor to Mona Hatoum, have not only made a major contribution to the development of contemporary art, they’ve encouraged people to make and look at work based on global issues. I do think art makes people understand each other’s concerns a little better.”

“I think what ATM can do is tell stories about places that people only usually understand from news headlines,” agrees Dawood. “That’s certainly what I was trying to get at, and to do so in a place where people might otherwise be looking at tanks – well, so much the better.”

•The Asia Triennial Manchester runs until November 23. For more information, visit www.asiatriennialmanchester.com