THE MAP IS NOT THE TERRITORY
Throughout this collaborative publication, Akkaz collective focuses on areas in Kuwait’s geographic and geological scape through expeditious and detailed referenced research accompanied with images and maps. Such areas include; Sulaibikhat, Doha, Ras ‘Ushairij, Umm Al-Namil, and Shuwaikh.
Challenging the conventional structure of a research document, oral histories and the efforts of local journalists precede any didactic, mostly Western textual introduction/perception to a Kuwait Bay.
Following Kuwait’s Sulaibikhat and Doha coastlines (Kuwait Bay) this research-based and associated visual project retraces these isolated and misused spaces while unearthing the historical and social underpinnings of how these landscapes were and continue to be shaped.
This analogous document of research—comparable to the contextual structure and organization of the visual exhibition aforementioned in this document’s introduction—is also divided into three consecutive, overlapping concentric tiers:
Throughout this document on the neglected geographies dispersed across Kuwait Bay, Akkaz Collective’s intention is to emphasize a counter-strategy—one that excavates and platforms the local histories of these peripheral locations that have yet to be recorded or acknowledged from a systemized and largely Westernized academe.
Throughout this collaborative publication, Akkaz collective focuses on areas in Kuwait’s geographic and geological scape through expeditious and detailed referenced research accompanied with images and maps. Such areas include; Sulaibikhat, Doha, Ras ‘Ushairij, Umm Al-Namil, and Shuwaikh.
Challenging the conventional structure of a research document, oral histories and the efforts of local journalists precede any didactic, mostly Western textual introduction/perception to a Kuwait Bay.
Following Kuwait’s Sulaibikhat and Doha coastlines (Kuwait Bay) this research-based and associated visual project retraces these isolated and misused spaces while unearthing the historical and social underpinnings of how these landscapes were and continue to be shaped.
This analogous document of research—comparable to the contextual structure and organization of the visual exhibition aforementioned in this document’s introduction—is also divided into three consecutive, overlapping concentric tiers:
- an ecological level or scope where the focus of this research directory lies in the coastal mudflats,
- an industrial level that examines the coastal spaces of Sulaibikhat and Doha as Kuwait's epicenter for water desalination plants and the now abandoned American military camp,
- and a conceptural level, which will be addressed near the end of this document how Akkaz Collective traced patterns and historical significance throughout the geographic triangulation of the now demolished Entertainment City theme park, Doha’s nature reserve, and the newly constructed causeway that bridges the densely populated city to this swampy, neglected geography.
Throughout this document on the neglected geographies dispersed across Kuwait Bay, Akkaz Collective’s intention is to emphasize a counter-strategy—one that excavates and platforms the local histories of these peripheral locations that have yet to be recorded or acknowledged from a systemized and largely Westernized academe.
The Map is Not the Territory
Collaborative publication
Aziz Motawa
Malak Al Suwaihel
Designed by Hamad Al Mujeem
2023
Collaborative publication
Aziz Motawa
Malak Al Suwaihel
Designed by Hamad Al Mujeem
2023
ALA TARAF LISAN AL’ARD
Exhibited as part of Akkaz Collective’s research project, Ala Taraf Lisan Al’Arth is a visual documentation through the lens of Aziz Motawa capturing the last eight years of his treks along the Doha and Sulaibikhat coastal areas and their interwoven narratives of industry and toxicity that play out in these derelict marshy stretches of Kuwait. Oscillating between dream-like, wanton vignettes and the industrialized corporeality of human intervention, this visual project foregrounds the six East to West water desalination plants and outpours along the northern coastal lines of Kuwait, which frame the abandoned American military camp, and geographic triangulation of the now demolished Entertainment City theme park, Doha’s nature reserve, and the newly constructed causeway that bridges the densely populated city to this swampy, neglected geography.
Aziz’s visuals embody a liminality—a third space—where the natural, industrial, and personal all congeal in the sump and pit of the sewage outpours that populate this geography of mudflats. There is a permeability of boundaries throughout these visuals of concrete, wire, and mudflats that unify these realms in the ebb and flow of the area’s intertidal zones. What remains here is a culmination of fragmented ideas on life and how it settles, how it self-destructs, and how it adapts taken from the perspective of animals native to the mudflats.
Exhibited as part of Akkaz Collective’s research project, Ala Taraf Lisan Al’Arth is a visual documentation through the lens of Aziz Motawa capturing the last eight years of his treks along the Doha and Sulaibikhat coastal areas and their interwoven narratives of industry and toxicity that play out in these derelict marshy stretches of Kuwait. Oscillating between dream-like, wanton vignettes and the industrialized corporeality of human intervention, this visual project foregrounds the six East to West water desalination plants and outpours along the northern coastal lines of Kuwait, which frame the abandoned American military camp, and geographic triangulation of the now demolished Entertainment City theme park, Doha’s nature reserve, and the newly constructed causeway that bridges the densely populated city to this swampy, neglected geography.
Aziz’s visuals embody a liminality—a third space—where the natural, industrial, and personal all congeal in the sump and pit of the sewage outpours that populate this geography of mudflats. There is a permeability of boundaries throughout these visuals of concrete, wire, and mudflats that unify these realms in the ebb and flow of the area’s intertidal zones. What remains here is a culmination of fragmented ideas on life and how it settles, how it self-destructs, and how it adapts taken from the perspective of animals native to the mudflats.
Ala Taraf Lisan Al’Ard
Project by Aziz Motawa
Designed by Hamad Al Mujeem
2023
Project by Aziz Motawa
Designed by Hamad Al Mujeem
2023
]
Akkaz, An Anthology
Akkaz, An Anthology is a series of imagined scenarios and experimental stories referencing history as it gives voice to archaeology and personifies remnants. The aim of the anthology section is to prompt our collective imagination when it comes to the local historical landscape.
The 1960s and 1970s were a time of rapid urbanization for Kuwait. The country's coastline was altered to accommodate the increasing demand for routes. The free trade zone, Shuwaikh, Kuwait, used to be known as Akkaz Island, covering 12,000 sqm, before it was reclaimed and merged with the land in the 1970s.
In recent years, Shuwaikh has undergone massive urban changes that are considered relatively recent history, given that fishermen inhabited the island up until the 1970s. A fascinating story lies within the perimeters of a considerably small roundabout that is inaccessible at this time due
to its location in the now industrial shipping port of Shuwaikh. The roundabout is the only surviving mound of seven, and it has undergone significant archaeological work throughout the years. Each of the seven mounds or 'tells*' has historical significance.
French archaeologist Jacqueline Gachet-Bizollon was part of a French expedition in the 1990s in the same area. The expedition's findings are all collected in a book titled "Le Tell D'akkaz Au Koweit." In this work, she describes the seven stratigraphic layers of a mound in Shuwaikh. Each layer encompasses its unique discoveries, such as evidence of domestic life, animal husbandry, Musnad writing, a Sassanid Dakhma*, the earliest church in the Persian/ Arabian Gulf, and Abbasid coins. Such dis- coveries place Kuwait on the historical map and help us gain clarity on its relation to the Gulf and surrounding countries in the years before the common era.
We wanted our fascination with archaeology to manifest through narratives and visual interpretations. The result is an anthology chapter reflecting each layer's evidence. In each story, fiction is carefully woven with reality. The narrated stories are extracted from Jacqueline's descriptions to each layer in her previously mentioned book. The stories sometimes take on the voices (first person) of specters of the past described as archaeological evidence in the research, and other times have a second or third-person narrator.
Akkaz, An Anthology is a series of imagined scenarios and experimental stories referencing history as it gives voice to archaeology and personifies remnants. The aim of the anthology section is to prompt our collective imagination when it comes to the local historical landscape.
The 1960s and 1970s were a time of rapid urbanization for Kuwait. The country's coastline was altered to accommodate the increasing demand for routes. The free trade zone, Shuwaikh, Kuwait, used to be known as Akkaz Island, covering 12,000 sqm, before it was reclaimed and merged with the land in the 1970s.
In recent years, Shuwaikh has undergone massive urban changes that are considered relatively recent history, given that fishermen inhabited the island up until the 1970s. A fascinating story lies within the perimeters of a considerably small roundabout that is inaccessible at this time due
to its location in the now industrial shipping port of Shuwaikh. The roundabout is the only surviving mound of seven, and it has undergone significant archaeological work throughout the years. Each of the seven mounds or 'tells*' has historical significance.
French archaeologist Jacqueline Gachet-Bizollon was part of a French expedition in the 1990s in the same area. The expedition's findings are all collected in a book titled "Le Tell D'akkaz Au Koweit." In this work, she describes the seven stratigraphic layers of a mound in Shuwaikh. Each layer encompasses its unique discoveries, such as evidence of domestic life, animal husbandry, Musnad writing, a Sassanid Dakhma*, the earliest church in the Persian/ Arabian Gulf, and Abbasid coins. Such dis- coveries place Kuwait on the historical map and help us gain clarity on its relation to the Gulf and surrounding countries in the years before the common era.
We wanted our fascination with archaeology to manifest through narratives and visual interpretations. The result is an anthology chapter reflecting each layer's evidence. In each story, fiction is carefully woven with reality. The narrated stories are extracted from Jacqueline's descriptions to each layer in her previously mentioned book. The stories sometimes take on the voices (first person) of specters of the past described as archaeological evidence in the research, and other times have a second or third-person narrator.
Akkaz, An Anthology
Written by -
Maryam Mohammed
Nada Abu Daqer
Sara Al Zeer
Designed by Hamad Al Mujeem
2023
Written by -
Maryam Mohammed
Nada Abu Daqer
Sara Al Zeer
Designed by Hamad Al Mujeem
2023
