The Water Seekers (work in progress)

Super 8
Colour, sound, 24fps
Duration: --
Date: 2023

‘The Water Seekers’ is a moving image piece addressing the disappearance of water and the possible future extinction of oasian ecosystems in Morocco. The concept for this piece stems from wider research I have been conducting in the oasis of Skoura, one of the last standing cultivated palm groves in the country. As one of the world’s oldest sustainable systems of agriculture, the palm grove constitutes the condition of life in arid climates. Today, its existence is threatened by shifting climate conditions, and the rapid depletion of water resources in the region. Reflecting on the underlying colonial history of resource extraction and land exploitation in the region, this project intends to question what the future of the oasis will be. With the water becoming more and more scarce every year, what traces will be left when it has been exhausted and what memory will it leave of the oasis and its inhabitants?