Wasserspiegel – Water Bodies

Contributions by: Mamdouh Alshash, Meleko Al Silo, Mehmet Gürü Avcu, Emel Aydin, Susan Azizi, Resul Bafeyî, Şêrko Bêkes, Hesen Çalak, Songül Çelîk, Dimastan Essa, Laili Donya Faizi, Şermin Güven, Delchad Heji, Dîlber Hêma, Bişar İçli, Wansa Ismael, Lerzan Jandîl, Jineoloji Comittee, Ecological women’s village Jinwar, Berivan Omar, Gulistan Öner, Quasi Objects, Delil Souleiman, Markus Stein – Cashmere Radio, Abdulkerim Yaşar, Salîha Yaşar, Semiha Yıldız

Drop by drop, woman to woman, species to species, all beings flow and spin until we grasp the cyclical relations that bind us all. The exhibition and public program Wasserspiegel – Water Bodies will host experiences of life and survival facing increasing water scarcity, from the voices of the rivers Munzur and Spree, to those of the inhabitants and water protectors living along the extensive river networks of the Firat/Euphrates, and Dîcle/Tigris. The project centers on technologies of care for water that have been passed down generations through songs, folk stories, ancient and reimagined mythologies, and real-life testimonies from the Kurdish communities living, loving, and working along the shores of the rivers Ceq-Ceq/Jaghjagh, Erez/Aras, the Xabûr/Khabur and the Gola Urmiyê/Lake Urmia.

Thanks to a long collaboration with anthropologist Şermin Güven, the exhibition presents Along the Rivers of Kurdistan–a multi-media project including myths that share the walls with water practices carried out by the women of the eco-village of Jinwar, Rojava, as well as with drawings of animals such as the Anatolian leopard and the goldfinch disappearing from the flooded Hasankeyf in the Tigris Valley. Sound recordings representing farmers and reforestation initiatives such as Kezîyên Kesk address irrigation and planting techniques, while the voices of elders share their past experiences of access to water, including the voice of Wansa Ismael whose luck it was to become “the bride of the house with the sweet water.” All these voices will be accompanied by environmental research, illustrating the politics of water scarcity through maps and satellite photographs. All these materials are the outcomes of years-long conversations conducted by Güven and will grow within an open learning space focusing on collective ecological practices and socio-cultural symbols in relation to water in Kurdistan and here in particular Kurdish women groups.

Meandering on new paths of working together towards awareness of, and care for, water issues, Wasserspiegel – Water Bodies and its public programs reflects on the creative agency required for mythmaking – a potent tool of resilience and imagining futures.

In the riverbed, we go into depths and provide space for new actors, impulses and stories. Quasi Objects has designed an intergenerational space for listening, contemplating and exchanging. The voices that speak about water justice, healthy water, cultural river spaces and their rights can also be heard on the radio. Checkout the first radio show in Kurdish and German in the media gallery below. The public program follows the water stories that change the exhibition over time.