Nobody’s Listening

The genocidal campaign of the self-declared Islamic State (ISIS) launched in August 2014 resulted in the death and displacement of thousands of people in northern Iraq. During the campaign ISIS set out explicitly to destroy the Yazidi community that had lived there for generations.

Many people of ethnic and religious minorities were killed, tortured, sexually enslaved or forced to convert. Fearing for their safety, others fled and resettled abroad. In the ancestral lands they left behind, temples, churches, shrines and historical sites were desecrated and destroyed. Hundreds of thousands of civilians remain displaced, while 2,800 Yazidi women and children are still missing.

Combining technology and art, the immersive VR exhibition enables viewers to understand the wider aspects of the genocide. It aims to stimulate the public’s imagination and bring them closer to the tragedy by using virtual and augmented reality technology, sculpture, painting and photography. This includes artworks from Yazidi, Assyrian and Christian artists as well as from survivors.

The exhibition will inspire the viewer to take action by including social media stations, enabling them to make pledges of commitment to show that #WeAreListening.

The deliberate destruction of cultural heritage is a war crime. As part of its genocidal campaign, ISIS destroyed important religious and cultural sites. The exhibit highlights such destruction using a 3D model of a destroyed Yazidi temple rendered by Forensic Architecture. In addition, we have examples of Christian religious artefacts purposefully damaged by ISIS fighters. British Artist Piers Secunda has provided reliefs of Assyrian monuments from the Museum of Mosul.

All equipment and artwork will be donated to the future memorial museum in Sinjar.

For more details about the actual VR experience, see our mini-review here.

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