About
About the project
Marsh Anthology: Between Water and Oil follows life in Al-Hawizeh Marsh in southern Iraq, one of the last wetlands standing in the path of oil extraction. Developed through online participatory mapping workshops with Ahwari people, the marsh’s inhabitants, it reads satellite images and maps through their lived experience and knowledge of the marsh. Each story begins with a moment, a site, and a life confronted by the oil industry, and is led by Ahwari voices, layered with writing, satellite images, maps, photographs, videos, and archival material. Together, the stories form an open spatial archive that grows with each new story. Here, every story of injustice is also a story of water.
Project leads
Ameneh Solati
Research-based artist and architect. Her practice investigates the spatial manifestations of political ecologies and the wider human-nature relations with a focus on water. Solati holds a master's degree in architecture from the Royal College of Art in London.
Farah Alkhoury
Architect and researcher. Her work examines environmental violence and political entanglements as consequential to architecture and spatial thinking. She is currently an Architecture Fellow at Bard College, New York.
In collaboration with
Mustafa Al-Ahwari
Ahwari activist and independent journalist focusing on the cultural rights of the region.
Murtada Al-Ahwari
Fisherman and defender of the marshes.
Acknowledgements
Supported by the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Art. @GrahamFoundation
Special thanks to all our Ahwari collaborators, whose knowledge and generosity have been central to this work. We are also grateful to Marina Otero Verzier, Tigran Kostandyan, and Mahdi Salih for their support, and to Fawwaz Abughazaleh and Maryam Solati for their assistance with translation.
- Workshop and interview coordinationMustafa Al-Ahwari
- Website design & developmentSamuel Salminen (opens in a new tab)
- Title letteringHala Al-Ani
- TypefacesLyon by Commercial Type & Setar by Dogray Type
- Satellite imagesLandsat / Copernicus, CNES / Airbus, Maxar
Social media
Newsletter
Subscribe for project updates and new stories.
© 2026 Marshanthology. All images remain the property of their respective creators and are used with permission. No images may be copied, downloaded or reused without written permission from the copyright holder.