Alchemy of Fragmented Rooms - storytelling workshop

Alchemy of Fragmented Rooms is an immersive, multi-format project reclaiming Sudanese heritage through VR storytelling, film, and live ritual created by Issraa Elkogali Häggström. Using 3D-scanned Mahdist Djibbas held in Swedish museum collections, the project reweaves stolen artefacts into living narratives of diasporic resilience, ancestral memory, and cultural healing. Rooted in feminist, decolonial practices and personal ancestry as a direct descendant of The Mahdi of Sudan, the work reclaims museum-held objects as sites of adaptation, healing, and belonging.

In direct dialogue with the aims of the Sudan Living Cultures project at the Petrie Museum at University College London, Alchemy of Fragmented Rooms engages museum artefacts not as static relics but as living vessels of memory, creativity, and intergenerational knowledge.

Background

Sudan Living Cultures is a collaborative knowledge exchange project between the Petrie Museum, artists, academics and independent researchers. Using existing collections data, this project seeks to enhance our understanding of Sudanese material heritage by embracing indigenous ways to learn about the past. By making space for alternative ways of knowing, we hope to offer new interpretations of the material on display.

About the Artist

Issraa Elkogali Häggström is a Sudanese-Swedish interdisciplinary artist working across storytelling, digital media, and live performance. Her work focuses on reclaiming fragmented diasporic histories and healing ancestral trauma through creative practice. She previously contributed to the Petrie Museum’s 'Hidden Histories' project (2007) and collaborates with major cultural institutions internationally.

RSVP

To attend this event please reserve your ticket. There is limited space in the Museum, coupled with high demand. Please contact us at museums@ucl.ac.uk if you are no longer able to attend the event. This will allow us to allocate your ticket to someone else.

Access

The Petrie Museum is accessible to wheelchair users and those with limited mobility from street level via a lift in the adjacent UCL Science Library. Upon arrival at the Museum, visitors requiring lift/level access should ring the buzzer labelled ‘Museum’ located to the right of the main museum entrance. A member of our Visitor Services team will meet and escort you to the galleries via our level access route. Assistance is also available in reverse when exiting the museum.

Level access between the Pottery and Main Gallery spaces is available via a staff-operated lift.

Level access to our Entrance Gallery and shop is available via a private staff area.

Further information on museum access can be found here.

Finding us

We are located on the University College London (UCL) Bloomsbury campus, in the heart of central London. The nearest tube stations are Euston Square (Metropolitan, Circle, Hammersmith & City), Goodge Street (Northern Line), Warren Street (Victoria Line), and buses 18, 30, 73, 134 and 205 stop 3-5 minutes away on Euston Road.

Here's the location on Google to help you find your preferred route.