NEW PARADIGMS FOR RECONSTRUCTION: ‘THE HORIZON: REVIVE THE SPIRIT OF MOSUL’
In collaboration with the Government of Iraq and the Ministry of Culture and Youth of the United Arab Emirates, UNESCO presents ‘The Horizon: Revive the Spirit of Mosul’ as a auxiliary event at the 2021 Venice Biennale. A city sitting at the junction of the Tigris river, Mosul, as its Arabic name suggests, is the ‘linking point’ between diverse ethnicities and religious beliefs. The three-year-long occupation by IS (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) from 2014 to 2017 has left the city in ruins and its people displaced. In the aftermath, in February 2018, UNESCO launched its reconstruction project ‘Revive the Spirit of Mosul’. Casting the Al-Nouri Mosque and the Al-Hadba Minaret as the protagonists of the reconstruction project, the exhibition presents a journey in pursuit of the lost spirit of Mosul. Here, Kim Seonwoo discusses the changing paradigms and methodologies of reconstruction with Ippolito Pestellini Laparelli and Francesca Lantieri of 2050+, who designed and curated the exhibition.
Unravelling Across a Horizon
Upon entering the halls, one sees a gradient of blue, white, and brown reach around the walls. The curtain weaves through the four stages of Mosul’s history – ‘destruction’, ‘liberation’, ‘actions’, and ‘future’ – and becomes the literal horizon line of the exhibition. The horizon is always there; if one looks beyond where
