Baadshahi Ashoorkhana (The Royal House of Mourning) Original

An Islamic Geometric Immersive & Interactive Art Installation New Media Experience

Utopian Dystopia is an event focused on bridging art, design, and technology. The multidisciplinary event will present artwork that follows the coherent theme of Utopian Dystopia. Each artist, through their work, will communicate their perspectives of the future, either Utopian or Dystopian. Utopia will portray an ideal setting envisioned by the artist and Dystopia the opposite.

To mark the beginning of the new Islamic millennium
(a utopian event for the Muslim World), i.e., the Islamic year 1000 Hijri (1591 A.D.),
Hyderabad city was founded by Muhammad Quli Qutub Shah, the fifth sultan of the Qutub Shahi rule in Golconda. In this new city, the Sultan first started the construction of the Charminar in 1000 Hijri (1591 A.D.) and then laid the foundation of Baadeshahi Ashoor-khana, or the royal house of mourning, in the year 1001 Hijri (1592 A.D.)

Scattered across the walled city of Hyderabad, there are thousands of 'Ashoor-khanas' or shrines dedicated to the martyrs of Karbala, a 7th-century battle fought between the army of the second Umayyad Caliph Yazid I and a small army led by Husayn ibn Ali, the grandson of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. An Ashoor-khana serves as a space for mourning and performing rituals that commemorate the tragic historic battle and its collective traumatic memory.

Therefore, these spaces are reflective of a dystopian event for the Muslim world across time and space. The Baadeshahi Ashurkhana signifies the tug between Utopia and Dystopia very well because it is symbolic of a Dystopian event but was constructed as part of a Utopian project.

Recreation of the broken heritage in the New Media.