Victory Displaced

2019

 

"Victory Displaced" is an online research and attempt to create new paradigm about the adventure of the “Arch of Triumph ", which was built during the 3rd century Roman Empire period in Palmyra, Syria.

 

Following the bombing of the structure by ISIS in 2015, various institutions and organizations working on the archiving of cultural heritage created digital models of this arch as well as other similar structures in Palmira. UK based The Institute for Digital Archeology prepared a photogrammetric digital model using photographs taken before the demolition of the structure. Using this model, 1/3 scale replica of the structure was produced by CNC technology and this replica was exhibited in various popular squares including Trafalgar Square, London, 2016; City Hall Park, New York, 2016; Palazzo della Signoria, Florence, 2017 and Place des Nations, Geneva, 2019.

The work, which focuses on the agenda created on this structure, combines two channel video and a 3D printed statue. In the first video, the squares, where the replica has been exhibited, are animated with the database of Google Earth. In the second one, the excerpt from concert held in ruins of Palmyra to honour victims of Syrian war streamed live on RT news on 5 May 2016 can be seen. Small scale 3D printed Arch is made of the digital model which has an online open access created with photographs of the replica. The work, which is placed on the axis on the original architectural structure, representation and its model, examines the relationship between them and traces the certain impossibility to own and experience the original or replica of any structure along with the “Arch of Triumph”. In this context, it tries to question how cultural heritage can be shared and to whom it belongs.