The Russian Airstrike on the Mariupol Drama Theater

Nomination

theater.spatialtech.info

The destruction and subsequent occupation of Mariupol by the Russian Armed Forces have fragmented its communities, leaving most survivors dispersed across different regions of Ukraine and other parts of Europe, and the city beyond reconstruction. This project looks at the bombing of the Mariupol Drama Theater as an emblem of Russia’s strategies of terror. Our aim is to assemble the voices of members of the Mariupol Theater diaspora within a digital project of reconstruction.

Our team has collected and analyzed thousands of social media posts, photographs, and videos in addition to recording over one hundred hours of interviews with witnesses. With no access to the site and with the systematic destruction of both physical and digital evidence, these recollections constitute an essential historical document. We used the model as a backdrop for situated testimonies and later to locate visual materials documenting the theater during the siege and after its occupation.

Credits

This study is conducted by the Center for Spatial Technologies (CST) in collaboration with Forensis & Forensic Architecture. We were working with numerous external contributors to make this project happen.

Core CST team: Maksym Rokmaniko, Mykola Holovko, Daryna Vilkhova, Ksenia Rybak, Valeria Prorizna, Andrii Onyshchenko, Oksana Hrabchak, Sasha Zakrevska, Natasha Pereverzina, Herman Mitish, Orest Yaremchuk

Detailed List of Credits and Contributions: https://theater.spatialtech.info/en/credits

Biography

The Center for Spatial Technologies (CST) is a transdisciplinary research group based in Kyiv and Berlin, at the intersection of architecture, the social sciences, and investigative and artistic practices. Focused on the multifaceted study of urban environments across time, CST collaborates with a diverse array of cultural, academic, and human rights organizations to render visible various societal important issues and their spatial implications. CST’s works are featured on leading global platforms, including the New York Times, the Venice Biennale, and President Volodymyr Zelensky’s social media.