The Geomorphosis Cycle
The Wet Knowledge at Nabi Daniel
2021
Videos
Projection installations
Research
The Cycle
is a series of video works based on research on the cisterns of Alexandria, an ancient infrastructure that was the backbone of water management in the city. This project is built on the dichotomy of appearance and disappearance, in a constructed narrative between reality, myth, and science fiction.
The video series will question the precarious future of Alexandria. Between the geomorphic events in ancient times -that led to such a technology of preserving water- and the current climate change crisis, the cisterns shed light on the present time that is filled with questions surrounding the future of humanity.
The Wet Knowledge at Nabi Daniel is an episode that highlights this reappearance of the cisterns by starting a conversation between the cisterns themselves, the urban imagination, the mythology around them, and future speculations of Alexandria. Through the reappearance of abandoned underground constructions, concerning questions should be rising around water politics and management in an age of severe environmental crises. The cisterns once played a main role in saving Alexandria from disappearance by sustaining the drinking water in the city, after a huge geomorphic event in 365 AD has caused tsunamis and earth fissures, allowing the sea water to reach the subterranean water.
The video series will question the precarious future of Alexandria. Between the geomorphic events in ancient times -that led to such a technology of preserving water- and the current climate change crisis, the cisterns shed light on the present time that is filled with questions surrounding the future of humanity.
The Wet Knowledge at Nabi Daniel is an episode that highlights this reappearance of the cisterns by starting a conversation between the cisterns themselves, the urban imagination, the mythology around them, and future speculations of Alexandria. Through the reappearance of abandoned underground constructions, concerning questions should be rising around water politics and management in an age of severe environmental crises. The cisterns once played a main role in saving Alexandria from disappearance by sustaining the drinking water in the city, after a huge geomorphic event in 365 AD has caused tsunamis and earth fissures, allowing the sea water to reach the subterranean water.
In the year 2150, Alexandria is expected to be almost fully submerged by the Mediterranean sea, displacing a population between 3 - 8 million citizens of the northern coast of Egypt. The sustainability of the Nile water in the Egyptian side is compromised after a political conflict between the Egyptian and the Ethiopian authorities over the newly constructed The Renaissance Dam.
How can the local cisterns of Alexandria be the starting point for a global study of sustainability and post-disaster infrastructure solutions? How would urban imagination and myths around this neglected primitive technology lead to speculations around technologies in geopolitically and geophysically morphing futures? What are the possible governing models that will be generated in the post-climate crisis?
How can the local cisterns of Alexandria be the starting point for a global study of sustainability and post-disaster infrastructure solutions? How would urban imagination and myths around this neglected primitive technology lead to speculations around technologies in geopolitically and geophysically morphing futures? What are the possible governing models that will be generated in the post-climate crisis?