Reconstruction II

Meeting displaced persons from Syria creates a bridge in my project. It could be seen as another process of reconstruction of the rubble. Or it could be a start for a new project.   

By applying similar methods of those used to monuments to represent the destruction of Syrians’ ordinary places and everyday objects, my intention was to address that the destruction of their places deserves the same importance as the destruction of Palmyra. 

Besides that, the interview script itself was developed following the rubble process. Like a process of mapping, we started in the country, cities, then to mark neighborhood, to position streets, to draw their houses, talk  about their rooms and theirs objects. 

In three meetings, for more than 8 hours, Majed, Rana and Muhammed guided me through their places by telling their stories and routines linked to these places. Before and after images and before and after stories were part of the whole process. As I couldn’t be there in the physical place, we explore together representations as satellite images, google earth paths, drawing and pictures.  

Global cultural heritage is worth protecting, but the landscape of the everyday life of ordinary people should be equally valued.

Majed is 27-years old guy who lives in Gothenburg now. He left Darayya, suburb of Damascus, to escape the war in Syria. 

Darayya, Syria, 2000.

Darayya, Syria, 2014.