In the Footsteps of the Tigris:
Cultural and Ecological Reminiscences
August 2025 - May 2026
BATMAN, DİYARBAKIR, ELAZIĞ, CİZRE/ŞIRNAK
For thousands of years, the Tigris River has been one of the lifelines of Mesopotamia, connecting communities, languages, species and modes of production, creating a shared culture of life. However, over the past 50 years, dams, urbanisation, political interventions and ecological destruction have disrupted this continuity, profoundly transforming the environment and social memory. This process has rendered invisible the practices of coexistence between humans and non-human beings.
The ‘In the Footsteps of the Tigris’ project aims to document this transformation from the perspective of local communities through an ecological lens. Access to water, spatial justice, environmental destruction, and cultural continuity are the project's main focuses. Women's multi-layered relationships with water and coastal ecosystems are often invisible due to gender inequality. Through memory walks and oral history studies, the project will reveal women's testimonies, strengthening the traces of communities in spatial memory.
Furthermore, the project aims to transform the intertwined patterns of life between nature and humans into a polyphonic narrative. Public discussions will encourage collective thinking by bridging academic knowledge and everyday experience; an exhibition in Diyarbakır will bring individual and collective stories to the public, creating an intergenerational bridge of memory. Thus, the multicultural and multilingual structure of the Tigris will be reflected in today's experience.
