22 Aug 2026
15:00 - 17:00
Artist Talk: Hydropolitics of Occupation
As part of the finissage weekend of Wild Waters: Dams and Deltas after Modernity, Framer Framed present a conversation between artists Jumana Emil Abboud and Areej Ashhab on the significance of water in the Palestinian landscape. Moderated by researcher Ali T. As’ad, the programme invites the audience into a shared reflection on water as both a vital resource and a lens through which to think about landscape, history and community.
Bringing together their artistic practices and long-standing engagement with questions of land, ecology and place, the discussion explores how water shapes cultural memory, everyday life and the Palestinian landscape. The conversation also reflects on the politics of water infrastructure and the ways in which access to and control over water have become central to experiences of occupation and displacement.
Programme
12:00 Doors open
15:00 Conversation between Jumana Emil Abboud and Areej Ashhab, moderated by Ali T. As’ad
Please register here.
About the exhibition
The Dutch landscape is interwoven with water: a vast network of rivers, canals, aquifers and engineered waterways flowing above and beneath the ground. For centuries, inland water has been both a source of life and a persistent threat to Dutch society. In response, engineers constructed dikes, canals and storm surge barriers to protect land that lies below sea level. These infrastructures produced not only safety, but also a national mythology of mastery over a resource that doesn’t always flow in such abundance.
During the era of global modernisation, dams and river engineering came to symbolise technological progress and national development. The Aswan High Dam, completed in 1970 under Gamal Abdel Nasser, brought hydroelectric power to thousands of Egyptians and transformed the Nile into an emblem of postcolonial ambition. Yet such projects have often been accompanied by displacement, ecological damage and the erasure of histories. In neighbouring Libya, the canalisation of wells enabled Italian colonial authorities to control access to water as a mechanism of dispossession, while the later abandonment of infrastructure contributed to the catastrophic floods in Derna in 2023. In occupied Palestine, the Zionist project framed through the idea of “making the desert bloom” was predicated on the extraction and redirection of underground waterways tied to longstanding traditions, agricultural practices and oral histories.
The exhibition Wild Waters (2026) traces the entanglements between water, colonial expansion and territorial exploitation through works by artists Jumana Emil Abboud, Suzette Bousema, Ewa Ciepielewska & Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Giovanni Giaretta, Adelita Husni-Bey, Anna Moreno, Suat Öğüt, Eunice Pais, Ashfika Rahman, Morteza Soorani, and Abdo Zin Eldin. Across their practices, ancient myths and contemporary struggles converge in the deltaic cultures of Bangladesh and the Ebro Delta, as well as along the Meuse, Vistula, Tajo and Tigris.
Floods and hydraulic interventions emerge as tools of political erasure: from the submerged Kurdish town of Hasankeyf, to the Shatt al-Arab where the Tigris meets the Karun, communities face pollution, ecological collapse, and forced displacement from lands long regarded as the cradle of agriculture. As the climate crisis intensifies, access to fresh water is increasingly threatened, while infrastructures continue to redirect and commodify this vital resource in service of political and economic power.
Info & Credits
This event is in English. Admission is free, pay what you can. Do you also think art should be free and accessible? Please consider supporting us with a donation when registering or by becoming a Framer Framed Friend! This event may be photographed and filmed. Kindly let us know in advance if you prefer not to have your picture taken. For seated programmes, places are always made available for wheelchair users. Please speak to the host before the programme begins.
Wild Waters: Dams And Deltas After Modernity is curated by Àngels Miralda and on show at Framer Framed until 30 August 2026. The exhibition is realised with the support of the Institut Ramon Llull.
Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.
Location
Framer Framed
Oranje-Vrijstaatkade 71
1093KS, Amsterdam
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Ecology / Amsterdam Oost / Artist Talk / Extractivism /
Exhibitions
Exhibition: Wild Waters
Curated by Àngels Miralda, the exhibition examines water as both a life-sustaining resource and an instrument of political power
Agenda
Guided Tour: Wild Waters: Dams and Deltas After Modernity
Guided tour by curator Àngels Miralda of the exhibition Wild Waters
Workshop: Monstrous Waters
Two-day workshop combining auto-fiction, cut-up techniques, symbolism and world-building, as part of the finissage of Wild Waters
Sprouts Film Festival: Aquatic Short Stories
Film screenings and conversations explore our relationship with water, aquatic histories and speculative fiction
Network
Areej Ashhab
Jumana Emil Abboud
Artist
