IR, RIVER, SEA, SOIL. A History of an Exploited Land is a special project by the Middle East Now Festival. The exhibition, curated by Roï Saade, was collectively developed in 2022 by Access in the Making (AIM) Lab, a research laboratory grounded in anti-colonial, anti-ableist, and feminist principles. AIM Lab explores themes such as accessibility, disability, environment, and care through creative experimentation, adopting an innovative approach to accessibility in the arts. The event is organized in collaboration with Forma Edizioni. AIR, RIVER, SEA, SOIL. A History of an Exploited Land examines how colonial rule—both past and present—along with forced displacement,… expropriation, political unrest, capitalist pressures, wars, and conflicts, have transformed the Middle East and North Africa into a patchwork of surveilled and militarized territories. These dynamics divide communities, hinder movement, and sever people from their connection to the land. While the capitalist and colonialist world order continues to extract natural resources for profit, local communities are left to survive in conditions of chronic neglect and precarity. This reality is explored through the work of five photographers and artists. Beginning in North Africa, specifically northwestern Tunisia, Lost in Moments by Zied Ben Romdhane introduces us to the living conditions of villagers in the Jendouba region, who struggle to access clean drinking water. From there, we move to Egypt, west of Alexandria, where Mohamed Mahdy’s Moon Dust documents the effects of air pollution caused by a cement factory and its threatening consequences on the health of residents in Wadi El Qamar (Valley of the Moon). Shifting eastward to Jordan, Infertile Crescent by Nadia Bseiso explores the dry, scorched lands of the modern Jordanian map and the environmental toll caused by man-made borders in what was once a fertile region. We then arrive in Lebanon, where Roï Saade’s The Epic of Dalieh recounts the illegal privatization of land and sea in Beirut, drawing parallels with an ancient epic. Finally, we reach Iraq, where Tamara Abdul Hadi’s Re-imagining. Return to the Marshesoffers a way to reimagine and reclaim the stories of the people and wetlands of southern Iraq, known as Al-Ahwar.