The disturbing images of disappearing oases by Seif Kousmate

Growing up, Moroccan photographer Seif Kousmate had little emotional attachment to his country’s iconic oases. But, as they grew older, he recognized the significance of their decline. In his ongoing series Waha – Arabic for oasis – the artist investigates the precarious state of these sites as they succumb to the effects of unsustainable agricultural practices, siltation, population displacement and increasing drought cycles. Through a blend of documentation and imagination, his images investigate the degradation of what for centuries have been seen as fertile idylls.

Works from Kousmate’s series are featured at the New Visions triennial of photography and new media at Oslo’s Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, a showcase of the work of a global array of artists concerned with the plundering of natural and man-made resources. THE Waha the images assess a landscape in distress: there are barren irrigation ditches, trees used as clotheslines, rickety palms and sun-cracked houses. The figurative works detail the henna-scarred hands of the locals and the efforts of workers clearing trenches and harvesting seaweed to aid the flow of water. There are also portraits of the besieged inhabitants of these endangered places. The compositions pose both a philosophical and an environmental question: what remains when an oasis – a refuge – is undermined?

There is a distinct reversal of fortune here. To outsiders, an oasis is a scene charged with notions of otherness and exoticism; it has become synonymous with security and sustenance. For North Africans, however, oases are also centers of commerce and places of traditional skills. “Behind Orientalist myths and representations lie systems, cultures, innovation and the human ingenuity of our ancestors,” says Kousmate. “We have managed to maintain a delicate and fragile balance between water, flora, soil and climate in this hostile environment that is the desert”. That balance has shifted dramatically: Morocco has lost two-thirds of its palm trees in the last century and a similar expanse of oasis habitat.

A self-taught photographer, Kousmate was born in 1988 in Essaouira on Morocco’s Atlantic coast and worked for several years as a civil engineer (although never with irrigation systems). He turned to photography in 2016 and has since focused on humanitarian themes, such as the experiences of sub-Saharan immigrants and young people in Rwanda, projects that have been primarily documentary in style.

For WahaHowever, Kousmate has embraced more experimental and conceptual elements. Some of the images have been embellished with deliberate interventions – burns, scars, collages – to extend the metaphor of decay. The prints have been burned by fire and corroded by acid. Other works incorporate organic elements, such as dried dates, earth and the dead skin of palm trees. The overall effect is that of nature faltering, out of sync with his natural patterns.

In recent decades, water has gone from being an abundant resource, as fundamental as food, oxygen and light, to a commodity threatened by the worsening environmental crisis, economic forces and human conflicts.

Kousmate’s photographs show this global devastation in miniature, as climate change and urbanization impact these Moroccan ecosystems. “Demystifying this ‘miraculous’ aspect of these territories is what prompted me to better understand what is happening in the oases at the moment, while they are experiencing a transition and an imbalance,” he explains.

At the end of the images, one of the prints reports, in calligraphic Arabic, the words of the Moroccan poet Ibrahim Rajeaa, a resident of the Tighmert oasis in southern Morocco: “The roots of the palm trees in the ground cry while their water sources are sold / Palm roots in the ground lament those who rested in their shade.” Yet, Kousmate argues, there is still hope. The oases of southern Morocco are now included in the Unesco world network of biosphere reserves. While it’s influencing art, Waha it is also advocating for change.

New Visions: The Henie Onstad Triennial for Photography and New Media runs until 17 September 2023; hok.no/en

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