Syria: Story of a Conflict & Sergey Ponomarev: A Lens on Syria
Imperial War Museum, Manchester 2018

Hara Clark worked with the IWM team to move both exhibitions from London to their Manchester site. The large and distinctive gallery by Daniel Libeskind with sloping floor and walls was to contain both separate distinct and exhibitions.

The Sergey Ponomarev exhibition consisted of large photographs and an audio visual projection. We create a sequence of spaces using freestanding wall structures in a cruciform arrangement.

The Story of a Conflict exhibition was divided by an imposing wall structure, composed of open boxes recalling the residential buildings of Aleppo, bombed and broken by the conflict. The wall contained objects collected to represent the different sides of the conflict from a child’s life-vest to a bullet-damaged Aleppo street sign. Beyond the wall a multilayer AV installation explained the complexity of the war and factions involved. The symbolic graphic motif of a traditional Islamic pattern, broken apart and Damask pinks were used throughout.