Mariupol Drama Theater

The theater is like a metaphor (…) an example of mutual care, cooperation and help. That's what this place was in a very intense and highly organized way. That's what the bomb destroyed. (M. Rokmaniko, CST)


The images went around the world: the word Deti (“children”) in large Cyrillic letters in front of the theater. During the full scale invasion, the theater became a shelter for up to 2,000 people – and a symbol of the terror and war crimes committed. 
A Ukrainian team narrates how, as the city shrunk, a city within a building was created and assembles the voices of the survivors.

In collaboration with Forensic Architecture, the Center for Spatial Technologies created a 3D-Modell of the building, collected and analyzed thousands of photos, videos and social media posts and recorded over 100 hours of never-before-seen witness testimony, to reconstruct a picture of life in the besieged Mariupol Drama Theater: a refuge, and an act of resistance.

For nine days, Theater Neumarkt opens its doors to a media spatial experience of this research.


The installation is open continuously at the times indicated. Videos in Ukrainian with English subtitles. German translation is available. Text fragments in English and German are provided for Reading Group. No previous knowledge required.

Free admission for people with protection status S


By Center of Spatial Technologies (CST) and Forensic Architecture/Forensis

Reading Group Anna Wohlgemuth and the doctoral program "3rd" under the direction of Ilse van Rijn, IPF/ZHdK