Framer Framed

4 Jul 2026
14:00 - 15:00

Guided tour: Wild Waters. Dams and Deltas After Modernity

Join on 5 July 2026 at 14:00 for a guided tour of the exhibition Wild Waters: Dams and Deltas After Modernity with exhibition curator Àngels Miralda, diving deeper into the artworks on display. Wild Waters explores the dual nature of water as both a life-sustaining resource and vector for political power and environmental degradation across multiple contexts, featuring works by 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.

For centuries, inland water has been both a vital life source and a constant threat to Dutch society. In response, engineers have built dikes, canals, and storm surge barriers to protect land that lies below sea level. During the era of global modernization, dams and river infrastructure came to symbolize progress. At the same time, water has also functioned as a method of displacement, contributing to environmental instability and, in some cases, creating the conditions for catastrophic flooding. Identifying it as both a natural life source and a tool within processes of colonial expansion and territorial exploitation, Wild Waters reveals water’s deeply entangled role in shaping human and ecological histories.

Programme

12:00 Doors open
14:00 Guided tour by exhibition curator Àngels Miralda

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 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.

Location

Framer Framed
Oranje-Vrijstaatkade 71
1093KS, Amsterdam

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.

Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.

Exhibitions

19 Jun – 30 Aug 2026

Exhibition: Wild Waters

Curated by Àngels Miralda, the exhibition examines water as both a life-sustaining resource and an instrument of political power

Agenda

Network

Àngels Miralda

Curator