In 2017, Amnesty International published a report describing Saydnaya Prison in Damascus, Syria, as a “Human Slaughterhouse” and one of the most violent prisons in the world. Before releasing the report,
Amnesty International collaborated with the Forensic Architecture agency in April 2016 to interview survivors of Saydnaya Prison. These interviews took place in Istanbul, as the regime enforced a total blackout policy on all information about the facility. Access to Saydnaya was strictly prohibited for journalists, activists, and civilians, making independent reporting on its conditions impossible. The prison was operated by the Syrian Military Police under the dictatorial Assad regime, holding thousands of opponents since 2011 and earlier.
Ahmad Darkhabani is an architect, researcher, writer, and independent curator. He currently works as a Lecturer at the Institute for Contemporary Art (IZK) within the Faculty of Architecture at Graz University of Technology. Additionally, he works with the Art & Architecture Mediation Department at the Universalmuseum Joanneum, which includes Kunsthaus Graz and Neue Galerie Graz.
Darkhabani’s work explores the intersection of contemporary art and architecture, focusing on their role in constructing the social sphere. His research asserts that architecture is not merely a passive backdrop but an active participant in shaping societal structures. Through text and language, Darkhabani is developing a research methodology that challenges conventional, linear understandings of history and time.
Darkhabani worked as a Production & Curatorial Assistant at Grazer Kunstverein, where he worked on various exhibitions such as Cameo by artist Bianca Baldi (2021) and The Actress by artists Aimée Zito Lema and Becket MWN (2021). He was also a member of the curatorial collective Das Gesellschaftliche Ding at Annenstraße 53. Darkhabani worked in Art & Culture Mediation at Schloss Eggenberg (UNESCO World Heritage Site) and was a Project Coordinator at steirischer herbst’20 – Paranoia TV.
Darkhabani took part in various projects, such as Grazer Kunstverein Moves to an In-Between Space with artist Edward Clydesdale Thomson and others (2021). He was also a resident at Praksis, Oslo, Norway, where he co-developed a manifesto rethinking tourism through architecture, art, and community (2022). Darkhabani participated in the Summer School at Kunstverein München, where he contributed to a publication titled The Stories We Tell Ourselves (2021). Most recently, he was one of the selected curators to join the Autumn School of Curating led by Kate Fowle in Cluj-Napoca and Timișoara, Romania (2024).
ABSTRACT: The relationship between architecture and the social is a continuous, reciprocal construction. Architects occupy a critical position in the political act of world-building, designing realities where power is staged and materialized. As an embodiment of ideology and authority, architecture weaves the associations that assemble societies and sustain power dynamics. Eventually, the realities forged by specific architectural interventions—economic, legal, ideological, and colonial—turn into the mediums through which all forms of violence and inequality among nations are realized, rationalized, and perpetuated. In light of this, the research investigates two spatial configurations simultaneously. These spaces are metaphorically called the White Cube and the Black Box, referring to the contemporary art exhibition space and the prison, respectively. The rationale for incorporating the Black Box and the White Cube into this study is based on the argument that both spaces epitomize modernity and colonialism, using technologies like architecture and urban design as instruments of control, subjectification, and compliance As an outline of investigation, the dissertation begins with tracing the interlinked histories of the carceral system under the influence of modernity and the Exhibitionary Complex as studied by sociologist Tony Bennett. It continues investigating the historical consequences that established the
Black Box as a tool of dominance and the White Cube as a colonial instrument. Then, the research
demonstrates how display and torture intersect as acts of violence by presenting examples where
subjugation goes beyond object and subject relations and is practiced in abstraction. The last part of
the dissertation is an architectural reading of two sites, one of them is a contemporary art association
called Grazer Kunstverein in Austria and the other is a notorious detention center called Saydnaya
Prison in Syria. This research concludes that oppressive regimes build institutions to produce submissive
societies. It does so by revealing the role of architecture in enforcing discipline and thought suppression. Ultimately, the dissertation suggests that architecture is not merely a passive backdrop but an active participant in shaping societal structures. This research demands finding ways to imagine architectures that function as spaces of emancipation.
