Following the devastating war with ISIS between 2014 and 2017, the cultural heritage of Old Mosul is damaged and in danger of being disappeared. This project aims to help in preserving the heritage of Old Mosul, and informing future studies and efforts to recover the destroyed heritage of this city.
In the aftermath of severe destruction of Mosul’s heritage assets and the displacement of its communities, Mosul’s long-lived heritage of arts, folklore, crafts and festivals is quickly disappearing. This project seeks to implement a strategic approach to revive local traditions and reactivate the cultural heritage of the Old City through memorialisation, preservation and dissemination of shared heritage as a catalyst for sustainable socio-economic mobilisation of the heritage economy. It aims to research, record and analyse the memories of heritage practices, festivities and crafts that used to define the pre-conflict society of Mosul. Through community engagement and co-creation workshops with displaced communities, the research team is looking to digitally record and archive oral narratives and memories of local residents and craftsmen, trace spatial networks of historic festivities, crafts and places of production to generate an interactive, digital and tangible record of the city’s traditions, and build capacity amongst young generations and unemployed women in the Old City.
