Boghossian Foundation Presents New Digital Exhibition
Preserving the city’s rich architectural history and presented by Boghossian Foundation, a digital exhibition called ‘Aleppo, a 5,000 year journey’ is offering visitors the chance to explore 3D models of a diverse array of sites
From ancient temples and urban districts to Mosques and Ottoman-era villas, the Boghossian Foundation’s exhibition ‘Aleppo, a 5,000 year journey’ will let visitors walk through projected 3D models created by Iconem, documenting the featured building’s history.
Available to visit until January 31, 2021 the exhibition is home to some of the most renowned buildings of Aleppo, including the souk, Al-Madrasa Al-Halawiyah, Hammam Yalbougha and the 11th century minaret of the Great Umayyad Mosque of Aleppo, destroyed in 2013. Located in Brussels in Villa Empain, Boghossian Foundation was founded by two Aleppo natives, Jean and Albert Boghossian, as a cross-cultural centre for exchange.
Director Louma Salamé announced, “As a centre for art and dialogue between Eastern and Western cultures, the Boghossian Foundation is proud to present its first exhibition about Aleppo, a unique experience of discovering the martyred vestiges of the Syrian heritage.”
In 2017, Iconem, a startup specialising in the conservation and digitisation of heritage sites through photogrammetry, managed to conduct fast-paced field missions in Aleppo to document major monuments.
“In Aleppo, our team was able to collect tens of thousands of pictures of the major sites, including the old city, the great Mosque, the souk and the citadel with the help of drones and cameras on poles in a matter of days,” recalls founder of Iconem, Yves Ubelmann. Current estimates assume that several hundreds of historic buildings were wrecked during the Civil War.
Ubelmann noted that he and his team consciously left the marks of destruction visible on the 3D models, so that viewers will be confronted with the harsh damage inflicted on the historic heart of the city and be reminded of the brutality of the war.
“Our will wasn’t to erase every trace of the war,” he adds. “We wanted to show the public the vulnerability of these relics of the past.” “If this heritage isn’t properly documented, there is a risk that even the memory of it will disappear,” Ubelmann warns. Thanks to his partnership with the Syrian archaeologists of the Directorate-General of Antiquities and Museums, Iconem has launched the initiative ‘Syrian Heritage’ to continue preserving the country’s endangered heritage.
Aleppo, a 5,000 year journey is on view until January 31, 2021. boghossianfoundation.be
Image Courtesy of Boghossian Foundation
From the Autumn 2020 Issue of Harper’s Bazaar Art