Infertile Crescent is an attempt to visualize what happened to the “Fertile land”, which once stood as the cradle of civilization, the paradise of biodiversity with its marshlands and rivers that shaped the progress of humanity.

Today the crescent is anything but fertile. In the early 19th century it witnessed crucial geopolitical changes that made up this land transformed the region for a century to come. It escaped the hands of the Ottoman Empire, only to fall to British-French colonialism. Regaining its independence years later, it was rebuilt, mapped out and divided into small states that currently make up the new contemporary Middle East.

There was a time when man had a maternal relationship with Mother Nature. When the sun burned his land, man cried for Nature to spare some rain. Women who could not have children would punish their bodies by soaking them in hot springs as they asked Nature for forgiveness. Mother Nature listened to their tears and granted them rain and children.

The artist explores the 180-kilometer route of the future Red Sea-Dead Sea aqueduct, a joint project between Jordan, Israel and Palestine to provide much-needed water, and delves into the intricacies of Jordanian geopolitics across its northern border, where fertility traces are traced in its rich mountains.

Infertile Crescent seeks to provide an answer to what has happened in man’s relationship with the land in this once thriving region.

Photo of the project Infertile Crescent by Nadia Bseiso