THE MISSING: REBUILDING THE PAST

Tmam Alkhidaiwi Alnabilsi
James Brooks
Dimitra Ermeidou
Million Image Database
Piers Secunda
Erin Thompson

15th April - 7th May 2016

Private View
Thursday 14th April 6.30 - 8.30pm

"A timely artistic response to the iconoclasm in Syria"
Paul Carey Kent

The Missing: Rebuilding the Past is the first exhibition to showcase the efforts of artists and scholars who resist the destruction of cultural heritage wrought by the so-called Islamic state, ISIS. 

ISIS have marred cultural treasures in Iraq and Syria, taking sledgehammers and drills to statues at the Mosul Museum and delivering numerous blows to the ancient site of Palmyra. A number of projects that engage with existing and developing technologies have emerged in recent years to trace the histories and even reconstruct destroyed objects. While many of these respond to cultural loss from human conflict, still others are concerned with ever present sources of erasure, from looting and illicit dealing to weather and the passing of time. The Missing: Rebuildng the Past examines how artists and scholars use creative means to protest preventable loss.

Co-curated by Erin Thompson and Jessica Carlisle, the exhibition premiered at the Anya and Andrew Shiva Gallery at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York City in February 2016. Its London edition will coincide with the unveiling of a life-sized replica of the Palmyra Arch in both Trafalgar Square on 19th April.

We are pleased to announce that there will be a special screening of The Quake, a musical and video collaboration between Oscar-winning composer Ennio Morricone and filmmaker Matteo Barzini at the Private View on Thursday 14th April.

Image credits (from top):

Piers Secunda, ISIS Bullet Hole Painting (Assyrian Head), 2015, Industrial floor paint and metal fixtures, 73 x 100 x 3.5 cm
Dimitra Ermeidou, Demos - for a Hall of Portraits I-IV, 2013, Archival pigment print, 28 x 24 inches
Exhibition installation including The Umayyad Mosque, Tmam Alkhidaiwi Alnabilsi, 2015, found materials, 120 x 75 cm
Million Image Database, Digital Rendering of the Triumphal Arch, Palmyra, Syria, 2016, 3D resin print, 25 cm tall
James Brooks, Meditations of Marcus Aurelius, 2016, 7-system based audio works and generic Google image search; dimensions variable; edition of 12

Links:

The Institute of Digital Archaeology
The Missing: Rebuilding the Past (New York City)

Press:

BBC News
The Londonist
FAD Magazine's
Notey
Paul Carey Kent Art Blog
Caroline Banks Art Blog