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It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq, A Project by Jeremy Deller, 2009
Presented by the New Museum and Creative Time for the Three M Project.
Curated by Laura Hoptman, Kraus Family Senior Curator, and Amy Mackie, Curatorial Assistant, New Museum; and Nato Thompson, Curator, Creative Time. Buotte's three-time participation in It Is What It Is: Conversations about Iraq was curated by Amy Mackie.

Excerpted from curatorial statement: Over a six-week period at the New Museum in New York, (February 11-March 22, 2009) British artist Jeremy Deller has invited journalists, Iraqi refugees, soldiers, and scholars to share their memories of the last decade in and out of Iraq. In one-on-one conversations with New Museum visitors, their stories will elucidate the present circumstances in Iraq from many points of view. At the end of March, "It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq" will travel across the country from New York to California, with conversations conducted at more than ten public sites along the way.
As we enter the seventh year of our conflict in Iraq, many Americans outside of the Army have never met an Iraqi citizen or had contact with a soldier who has served time in Iraq. "It Is What It Is: Conversations About Iraq" does not promise to solve the problems between the United States and Iraq, but it posits that there is beauty that approaches art in human contact and intellectual exchange--that is, in simply talking amongst ourselves.