Baghdad Mall Screening Project, 2025
Sherko Abbas
video
The Baghdad Mall Screening Project is a large-scale public screening on the Baghdad Mall Tower. The project explores the urgent theme of climate change and its impact on Iraqi livelihoods, with a particular focus on the oldest living communities of the Iraqi marshes.
At the heart of this project lies the use of Google Maps as an archive, tracing the transformations of the wetlands from 1984 to 2025. This visual journey reveals how the marshes — once a thriving ecosystem and cultural landscape — have endured cycles of destruction, revival, and renewed threat.
The Iraqi wetlands have suffered greatly due to both political agendas and environmental pressures. In 1991, Saddam Hussein’s regime deliberately drained the marshes as a political strategy to suppress opposition, devastating one of the world’s most unique ecosystems. Following the collapse of the regime in 2003, water gradually returned, allowing the marshes to breathe again. Yet today, this magical landscape faces new threats — both political and environmental. Regional governments continue to restrict the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates, the two great rivers that sustain Iraq, while the brutal effects of global climate change accelerate the drying of these lands.
Through the Baghdad Mall Screening Project, these intertwined stories of loss, resilience, and survival will be made visible on one of Baghdad’s most prominent towers. By bringing this narrative into the public space, the project aims to spark dialogue and raise awareness of the urgent need to protect the marshes — not only as an environmental concern, but as a vital part of Iraq’s cultural memory and identity.
Gallery
About the Artist
Sherko Abbas is London based Kurdish- Iraqi artist and filmmaker. He was born in Iran in 1978, where his family lived as refugees. They returned to Iraq when he was two years old. Abbas studied Fine Art in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq and earned a Master of Fine Arts degree from Goldsmiths College, University of London in 2015. His work delves deeply into the realms of sonic and visual memory, examining how these forms of memory are captured, stored, and recalled. He places particular emphasis on modern memory practices, which increasingly depend on experimentation with recorded materials such as audio recordings, video and digital archives. In addition, he is profoundly interested in the current climate and geopolitical situation in Iraq. This includes not only the political dynamics and conflicts but also the social and cultural impacts on the Iraqi people.
Abbas’ works have been exhibited and screened internationally including at: Archaic, the Iraq pavilion at the 57th Venice biennale; Theater of Operations, MoMA PS1, New York; May Flames Pave the Way for You, Arsenal gallery, Białystok; Push Festival, Manchester , UK; Towner International, Towner Eastbourne, Eastbourne; Speaking Across Mountains, Middle East Institute, Washington D.C.; Baghdad Mon Amour, Institut des Cultures d’Islam, Paris; Vernacularity, Alternativa Festival, Gdansk; Estrangement, The Showroom, London. Also, his moving image works were screened at the Independent Iraqi Film Festival’s online screening, the 38th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival in Kassel, Germany, Aashra, Ashkal Alwan Online Film, Rencontres Internationales Paris/Berlin at the Louvre Auditorium in Paris, the Open City Documentary Combined Programme: What Rules The Invisible in London, Visit Festival Het Bos Ankerrui 5-7 in Antwerp, Belgium, Ruya Shop in Baghdad, and Shasha Movies online streaming. Cineholic online streaming at Shasha Library until 2024.,CINEMATEK, Âge d'Or festival, Belgian film archive in Brussels.
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