From the Palmyra Moment to Violence and The City | Ammar Azzouz

Cultural heritage sites in Syria have been weaponised, targeted, bombed, looted and destroyed. Since the start of the Syrian Revolution in March 2011, images of destruction, as in the case of Palmyra with its celebrity-like status, have attracted significant attention from archaeologists, architects and journalists to academics, politicians and art curators. This interest led to the emergence of an ‘industry’ on the protection and reconstruction of cultural heritage sites at the times of violence, wars and conflicts. Very often, cultural heritage projects have failed to engage with the Syrian people, turning our pain and trauma into a ‘heritage project’. Furthermore, most of these projects have focused on selective monumental heritage sites, whilst neglecting the inhabitants within and around these sites. They also failed to look at the cities as a living urban whole with the narrowed focus on the monumental heritage site. In this paper therefore, I ask two questions. Firstly, how has Palmyra been used and abused as a stage for global staged performances by different foreign powers? And secondly, how can we convert the one-off traumatic rupture of cultural heritage sites and its cinematic image of destruction, as in Palmyra in 2015, into an understanding of slow and fast violence that takes place in cities?

Beyond the Palmyra Moment

A ‘faithful copy of ancient Syrian monument destroyed by ISIS [Islamic State of Iraq and Syria]’, the Guardian’s arts correspondent Mark Brown wrote, ‘will stand in central London for three days.’[i] This was a replica of destroyed Arch of Triumph in Palmyra that stood at the heart of London, in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery. The report that Brown published, was also supplemented with a video of 3D printing and 3D machining as showcasing advanced techniques. Robots in Italy were used to reconstruct this arch from Egyptian marble. At the unveiling of the arch on Tuesday 19^th of April 2016, Boris Johnson, who was the Mayor of London at the time, and is currently the Prime Minister of the UK, gave a speech which was circulated across mainstream news channels. In his speech he said:

We are here in the spirit of defiance…Defiance of the barbarians who destroyed the original of this arch and destroyed so many other monuments and relics in Syria and in the Middle East and in Palmyra….Congratulations to the Institute of Digital Archaeology. How many digits do you think Daesh deserve? I think two digits to Daesh…[ii]

Whilst he answers the question, Johnson raises his two fingers in front of the audience who surrounded the 3D print: they are the two digits he wants to send to Daesh from the comfort of London. His speech that defines who is the barbarian and who is the protector of archaeology and cultural heritage, no doubt has had an impact on the UK’s public opinion and beyond. For those who are less aware of the complexity of the war in Syria and a historical context of the region, Johnson’s speech would shape the narrative of the war and its impact on the destruction and reconstruction of the built environment.

[i] Mark Brown, “Palmyra’s Arch of Triumph recreated in Trafalgar Square,” The Guardian, 2016.

[ii] Boris Johnson, “Bravo for Assad – he is a vile tyrant but he has saved Palmyra from Isil,” The Telegraph, April 19, 2016.

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