This project emerged from the collaboration with Spore Initiative in the context of the exhibition Wasserspiegel – Water Bodies Spore Initiative curated: Lota Schäfer (Spree).
They flow through the landscape with the earth’s gravity, move through territories, brush against forests and interact with living beings like us humans. They are lifelines of the otherwise barren landscapes and meander between mountain ranges or through landscapes that have already become desert and dried out, as in Kurdistan. Rivers like Firat/ Euphrates , Xabûr , Munzur, Dîcle /Tigris, Murat ,… form routes in the Anthropocene for those questioning this geography.
Leading us along their streams to people’s echoes of their ecological practices, socio-cultural symbols, cultural memories, myths and resistances. They evaporate along dry soil and return to the earth in the form of raindrops within the water cycle, strengthening local resilience and allowing hope to flourish. The eternal cycle of evaporation, precipitation and the flow of water creates a network of communication between living beings.
ALONG THE RIVERS OF KURDİSTAN – LI SER ŞOPA ÇEMÊN KURDISTANÊ is an open learning process and offers a roadmap based on the waters of Kurdistan. It invites you to a dialogue about the rivers and people of Kurdistan. Provides food for thought about people’s global ecological actions via the water network to adapt our cultural memory to the new climatic challenges. From Dicle to Firat and finally in the Xabûr river system, the collective knowledge will now meet the “Knowledge River Jineolojî ” via water for a dialogue. The river that no dam can stop, no patriarchy can shape and no authority can control. Here it is the women who turn these rivers into discourse, protect the rivers, question the practices around them, worry about how we treat the waters so that the rivers remain healthy, exist and preserve the lifeline of this geography.
Contributers and Partners:
JINWAR, Berivan Omar (Womens Ecology comitee in NES), Maviş Güneşer (Munzur Panel 13.07.2024),
Nafis Fathollahzadeh (Xabûr Film and Discussions 14.07.2024), Dîlber Hema (Ava Spî), Susan Azizi (Cem BeŞir), Berivan Teper (Munzur), Laili Faizi, Semiha Yildiz (Dicle), Gulistan Ön.(Dicle), Saliha YaŞar (Ceme Murat), Emel Aydin (Gola Vanê), Havin al-Sindy (Xabûr), Wansa Ismael (Ruhr), Yemal Kita Piya (Spree), Koma FaraŞin, Delil Souleyman, Bisar Icli, Hesen Calak, Mehmet Avci Güri, Kezîyen Kesk,