Published by Kerber. Text by Christine Gedeon, Nasser Rabbat.
Christine Gedeon’s Aleppo: Deconstruction | Reconstruction is a series of 15 map drawings alongside stories and memories from family members of places that may no longer exist, exploring places in pre-civil war Syria, which belong to the artist’s personal history. Ranging from the quotidian to the tragic, these works on paper include such sites as her grandfather’s office, located close to the Citadel, as well as the famed Baron Hotel. Unaware of the present state of the city, Christine Gedeon recreated a version of Aleppo, accessible only by memory. Her new book is a moving evidence of art’s curative capabilities, supplemented by family photographs and an essay on Syria by Nasser Rabbat, Director of the Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture at MIT.