IMAGINING HOMELAND: PALMYRA’S (IN)TANGIBLE HERITAGE AND THE VOICES OF DISPLACEMENT

This volume is a monograph of the virtual reconstruction projects of the Temple of Baalshamin, one of the significant forms of tangible heritage belonging to the Syrian community, destroyed as a result of terrorist operations. The virtual reconstruction is documented, through a series of workshops with Syrian communities (refugees, displaced persons, and individuals subjected to forced
or voluntary migration), as a process that supports social inclusion and the reconstruction of cultural identity.
The CIVIS Open Lab VERIS project (Voices of Palmyra: Engaging (In)tangible Memorial Heritage in Social Innovation for Refugee Inclusion), developed by the University of Lausanne, the University of Bucharest, and the University of Glasgow (through Professors Patrick M. Michel, Oana Șerban, and Brittnee Leysen), in conjunction with the SMOC project (Sustainable Management in Cultural
Organizations), developed by the UNESCO Chair for Interculturality, Good Governance and Sustainable Development, hosted activities that involved interactions between vulnerable target groups and professionals addressing the biopolitical and memorial implications of the visual reconstruction of destroyed heritage forms.
This album, in turn, constitutes a visual archive of the VERIS project, whose aim is to create a connection between the (in)tangible cultural heritage of the Temple of Baalshamin and the civilization of Palmyra Civilization, on the one hand, and the narratives of refugees from the Middle East whose countries have been affected by wars, on the other hand, in order to strengthen the social
inclusion of these vulnerable non-European groups across Europe and to raise awareness of the essential role of culture in building bridges and connections between communities marked by historical trauma.