Project by, Fion Li

The Tighmert and Asrir oases in Guelmim Province, southern Morocco, represent vital desert ecologies sustained by centuries-old khettara irrigation systems along the wadi. These oases, long supporting intricate relationships among date palm groves, agriculture, and local communities, now face mounting pressures from climate change and environmental degradation, threatening their continued viability. This project engages with Men vs Fathers (ongoing) by Moroccan photographer Seif Kousmate, who captures the temporal slowness of Tighmert through analog photography while materially altering his images using fire, acid, and fibers from dried out palms. By allowing the same forces—drought, fire, decay—that endanger the oasis to intervene in the photographic process, Kousmate’s work reveals the often-overlooked vulnerabilities of desert environments under climate stress. Building on this framework, the project shifts the perspective from a human-centered narrative to an expanded image of multispecies entanglement, tracing the interconnections among plants, and people across Tighmert’s past, present, and speculative futures. The project reframes the oasis as an active ecological system shaped by chemical, biological, and social interactions rather than solely as a site of human subsistence. A layered mapping strategy further explores Tighmert at multiple scales, moving from macro views of water networks and settlement patterns to micro layers of soil organisms and root systems. As the scale becomes more granular, the weave of the map becomes increasingly frayed and fragile, symbolizing how the fabric of the oasis may continue to unravel under persistent environmental pressures. Rather than focusing solely on the utility of the oasis for human use, the project positions the date palm as an entry point for investigating shifting multi-species relationships within the oasis, from pre-Anthropocene ecological dynamics to present climate stresses and into uncertain futures. Collectively, these elements propose a cultural and ecological timeline embedded within the landscape, prompting critical reflection on how the oasis might endure, adapt, or fragment in response to ongoing climate change.