STATEMENT

Once upon a time, it was possible to travel by land and sea across Southwest Asia and North Africa. The consequences of colonial domination, past and present, forced displacement, land grabs, political turmoil, capitalist greed, wars and conflicts have turned the region into a set of policed and militarized territories that divide communities, halt their movements, and alienate them from their relations to the land. As capitalist and colonialist world order continue to vigorously extract the land’s natural resources for profit, marginalized communities are made to live under conditions of continued precarity and neglect. Under these circumstances, disability is nowhere and everywhere at the same time. So are access issues…

The stories shown in this exhibition span a rich diversity of everyday experiences to rethink disability and access within the specific histories and localities of the South West Asian/ North African (S.W.A.N.A.) region. Crucially, they are driven by a desire for a borderless region joined by the struggles for justice, survival and liberation.

In a cartographical order, starting from North Africa and specifically from northwest Tunisia, Zied Ben Romdhane introduces us to the living conditions of villagers in the Jenouba region who struggle to access potable water. From there we head to the West of Alexandria in Egypt, where Mohamed Mahdy documents the effects of air pollution generated by a Cement Factory and its threatening consequences on the health of the inhabitants of Wadi El Qamar (Moon Valley). Crossing into Palestine, Razan Alsalah’s Canada Park confronts the relationship between exile and colonialism by recovering three Palestinian villages razed by the Israeli Occupation Forces. Moving east to Jordan, Infertile Crescent by Nadia Bseiso investigates the dry and burnt land of the modern Jordanian map and the environmental impacts man-made borders have had on the environment of this once fertile region. From there we head to Lebanon, where Roï Saade’s project narrates the illegal privatization of the land and sea in Beirut and draws parallels from an ancient epic. Lastly, we arrive in Iraq, where Tamara Abdul Hadi offers a way to reimagine and reclaim narratives of the people and the wetlands of southern Iraq, known as Al-Ahwar.