Alia Farid’s recent work examines how nature in southern Iraq has, since the advent of modernity, been mobilised as a political tool. Her new film Chibayish was recorded in the marshlands of southern Iraq, at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, in a region engulfed by oil infrastructure and industrial waste. It captures the artist’s exchanges with three young residents as they map the community that inhabits the marsh, and belt out calls to the buffalo that roam its waters. Mixing footage with CGI animation, Chibayish comes to explore cultural identity, history, colonialism and the right to remain.

Chibayish 2022

Alia Farid’s Chibayish examines how nature in southern Iraq has been viewed as both an accomplice and harbourer of political resistance. Filmed at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, Chibayish records the artist’s interactions with three young marshland residents: Riad Samir and Jassim and Qassim Mohammed. It includes footage of the children caring for a water buffalo, describing their geography, naming members of the community, and traversing a marsh engulfed by oil infrastructure and industrial waste. Chibayish is part of a larger group of works that Farid has developed since 2018 focused on the impact of extractive industries on southern Iraq and Kuwait’s ecological and social fabric. Like her installation Palm Orchard (2022), Chibayish is an exploration of cultural identity, history, colonialism, and the right to remain.