DRAWING THE LAND
Client: Irthi Council for Contemporary Crafts
Work: Text & Drawings
Location: Milan Design Fair, Italy
Date: 2023
The participation proposes an article
on falaj irrigation systems. The document investigates the relationship of
water in oasis with contemporary landscape and land-art practices.
The purpose of the contribution is to
rescue the knowledge of ancient irrigation infrastructure an translate it into
a set of questions, drawings, images and suggestive narratives.
TEXT︎︎︎
The infrastructural lines of falaj irrigation systems. The approach to complex territories has led humanity to develop a set of strategic interventions in order to develop and thrive. This set of strategies has synthesized a series of circumstances generated from an intrinsic connection with land and territory.
In this scope, one of the oldest developed strategies of survival by humankind is the Al Falaj irrigation system. The Falaj system is an instrumental and sophisticated scheme which formulates an infrastructure around water, land, geography and vegetation. Its approach to the land formulates a line as a primary intervention of man within an arid region. These lines create a confluence of branches that move around a territory with the capacity to produce a thriving landscape: an oasis.
A simple line is drawn and excavated into the territory encountering deep water. The displacement of this line into the surface activates a directional system of movement that is capable of displacing superficial water into a landscape.
The Falaj lines then appear as a tangible translation of movement, it becomes powerful by its action and its meaning. The simple act of tracing and drawing a line into a territory can have a series of arrangements that radically change both the place and sense of a place.
A line as a simplification of exterior forces.
A line as a displacement of a static point.
A line that can be finite or infinite, deep or superficial, continuous or interrupted.
A line that is carved into the land and activated by the linear movement of water.
A line that is directional.
A line that is fertile and productive.
A line that brings within it trees, palms, dates, and olives.
A line that understands its context and territory.
A line that extends from its flatness into real space.
A line that produces a landscape that contains nothing less than the universe itself.
Drawing the line, excavating the line, displacing the line, portrays a series of lessons on how to approach a complex territory, turning it into an infrastructural landscape from the simple action of tracing a line.
Intersecting the Lines
A crossed perspective.
The abstraction of Falaj irrigation systems into powerful lines reflect upon the strength of synthesis on how simple forms can express and contain a solid meaning. Intersectionality between the arts and culture can enlarge the understanding of man’s primary relationships with context and territory. From Mesoamerican architecture to Japanese calligraphy and land-art interpretations, the line has always carried heavy significance.
The line is nothing less than a means of communication, communication with the territory, with the land, with a community, with movement. In this sense, the line becomes a language.
Kandinsky in “Point and Line on Plan” expresses the following: “Such is the straight line, which in its tension constitutes the simplest form of the infinite possibility of movement.” (Kandinsky, 1926)
Through history the line has evolved from a two-dimensional interpretation into a three-dimensional space, thus interacting with the corporeal. Falaj systems cross paths with the last notion by interrelating with space, body, and time. Other artistic movements of this concept have been explored by extending the flatness of the line into a volumetric surface.
Lines in land-art pieces manipulate territory with a simple action, thus allowing other meanings to appear. Cutting the territory, excavating, and tracing the land, are notions that appear in land-art works. These actions portray a man’s contact with its environment provoking new interpretations. Its shape and form connect to Falaj concepts, conveying a distinct understanding of immediate surroundings.
In some examples of architecture and landscape architecture the traces of lines in certain landscapes (either natural or constructed) become an element of pause, contemplation and reflection. Some samples illustrate a line of water that marks a direction, a view and a perspective. Though its interpretation lies within the poetic it can almost be construed as ornamental.
In a world with significant alterations and deformations of climate and landscapes, how do we return to the origins of the productive lines of the Falaj system? What can we learn from it? How do we construct a fertile landscape using its principle of low energy consumption? How do we produce a regenerative territory? How do we apply its value onto contemporary practice? What are the lessons of intersecting Falaj systems within art? How do we cross its basic concept with architecture?
More than proposing a series of answers, this text triggers a series of questions that can manifest into ideas that have diverse conclusions and deductions, giving an insightful perspective on how to deal with scarcity.
Drawing the Land Graphite on Paper
24x32cm
Hand Drawn
Drawing the Land
Graphite on Paper
24x32cm
Hand Drawn