Future Aleppo
From: 20th August 2018 11:00 am
To: 24th August 2018 4:00 pm
Phoenix Cinema & Art Centre
4 Midland Street, Leicester, UKFuture Aleppo blends virtual reality with paper models to rebuild the devastated Syrian city. The exhibition is accompanied by an ongoing participatory workshop for young people to build a new virtual city.
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#FutureAleppoAbout
Amongst the destruction of his beloved home city, 13-year-old Mohammed Kteish resolved that he would rebuild Aleppo however he could. He would scavenge materials amongst the debris and then climb on to the roof of his apartment to survey the daily damage, reconstructing the fallen landmarks as papercrafted models.
Before long he had rebuilt the entire city, but as the violence escalated, he and his family fled across the border to Turkey. Mohammed continued to rebuild Aleppo as a means to record not only the architecture of the city, but -by using Virtual Reality – also its memories and personal histories
As part of Journey’s Festival International, we’ll be displaying Mohammed’s actual model of Aleppo alongside the virtual reality installation, where you can travel around and experience the city as Mohammed remembers it.
You will also be able to contribute to your own Virtual Reality city in an accompanying workshop taking place throughout the exhibition.
We’ll be asking you to create your own paper model city, which we’ll transform into virtual reality once the exhibition has finished. This VR model will then be made available via our website to be downloaded onto Android phones.