Majd Abdel Hamid, Research for Tadmur, 2019

Cotton thread on fabric
8 x 5 cm
unique
MAH/TEX 6

cotton thread on fabric
dimensions variable
unique

In the series Tadmur (Palmyra in Arabic), the contours of the architectural plan of the Tadmur prison are embroidered on disparate pieces of fabric.Tadmur prison was known as one of the most inhumane prisons in the world, due to the conditions of detention, torture or summary executions of prisoners. In May 2015, the city was taken by the Islamic State, which destroyed the archaeological remains and the prison.Tadmur is an attempt to honor the memory of the victims, to recall the memory of a tragedy while everything has been razed, passed under silence.A high place of the Syrian dictatorship, Tadmur could not be represented or documented.With few means on an infinitely tiny scale, the meticulous stitches of embroidery recreate the aerial and facade views of this imagined and told place.This ‘anti-monument’ seems to resist the loss of collective memory when the political field moves to a more poetic territory.