MOSUL, Iraq(Reuters)-
A crow perched on the shoulders of a woman with burning hair, a symbol of the terrible events that Iraqi artist Marwan Fathi had to endure for him and his hometown of Mosul.
During the three years of Islamic State oppression and violence, and the military campaign to drive the Islamic State out in 2017, most of the northern cities have become ruins.
Thousands of people were killed, homeless or disabled.
Those who survived were deeply wounded.
"I still wake up at night thinking the air strikes are coming soon, or they are coming to take one of us," Fathi, 36, said . ".
"Every day is a struggle.
Fathi's work is on display in return to Mosul --
This is the city's first art exhibition since it was occupied by the Islamic State, where the Islamic State's ultra-tough Sunni Islam bans most art forms.
Artists from all over Iraq are participating.
Including many people who lived there when militants controlled Mosul.
The unforgettable work of Hawkar Riskin, destruction, depicts a huge skeleton standing on one leg, while a series of paintings by Mohammad Al Kinani --
The "calibers", "calibers" and "calibers" represent the beginning and end of the Islamic State and the rebirth of Mosul.
Fati said the artists who stayed in the city had been living in fear and despair.
"We thought about suicide.
We reached that low.
But then we thought, what will happen to the children?
"Fathi, professor of the Academy of Fine Arts.
The play is being re-staged.
Opened the Royal Hall of the Mosul Museum, which was robbed and destroyed by the Islamic State in the subsequent war to take control of the city.
Another Ahmed mozahm in Mosul
Born artists continue to work in secret while the city is under militant rule.
Mozahem used his hidden writing board to avoid being discovered, he made 40 pencil drawings that are now one of his most precious possessions, expressing his and his
For the "City of whales" in the exhibition, Mozahem draws on the stories of the Prophet Jonah and the whales, which feature Nineveh, an ancient Syrian city roughly located where Mosul is today.
After the Islamic State captured Mosul in 2014, it stormed and destroyed many of Mosul's ancient sites and artifacts, including what many consider to be the shrine of the tomb of Jonah.
Mozahem said not only did the militants destroy the city.
"They also killed our souls.
But Matthew Vincent, an American archaeologist, says technology can help protect something lost.
Vincent is our colleague.
The founder of a crowdsourcing digital protection project called Rekrei, which collects photos of damaged or lost monuments and artifacts to re-
Create these in a 3D representation.
At the Mosul museum, visitors can now see Ancient Syrian treasures destroyed by the Islamic State.
One of them, the lion of Mosul, is a huge Assyrian guardian lion from about 860 BCE, and is one of the two lions standing at the entrance to the temple of nimrude Ishtar in Iraq.
"It will never replace the original technology, but the new technology gives us a path that we didn't have at all before," Vincent said . ".