Sednaya Prison: Anatomy of a Repressive Machine

*Sednaya Prison: Anatomy of a Repressive Machine* is an immersive documentary exhibition that introduces visitors to the prison through its architecture and the testimonies of former detainees. Using VR headsets, visitors enter a 3D model reconstructed by the Prisons Museum and move through communal cells, solitary cells, corridors, visitation rooms, detainee-transfer routes and execution areas. The exhibition also presents stories from inside the prison, an architectural analysis of its sections, and filmed investigations into detention, torture, execution and the concealment of evidence. It draws on more than 100 survivor testimonies recorded inside Sednaya after the fall of the Assad regime, alongside thousands of documents, field documentation and architectural research. By bringing together place, document and testimony, the exhibition shows how the Syrian regime used Sednaya’s architecture to organise control, isolation and systematic violence.