While their location and beauty have earned the Mesopotamian Marshes the reputation of being the original Garden of Eden, the region has suffered much in recent decades. Iran and Iraq fought a bloody war here in the 1980s. In the 1990s Saddam Hussain ordered much of the marshland to be drained. Today it is still surrounded by war and an expanding oil industry.
Mesopotamian Marshes
Stijn Verhoeff
In March 2007 Stijn Verhoeff travelled to Khuzestan in Iran, to the border with Iraq, an area containing the only surviving remnant of the ancient Mesopotamian Marshes. What started as an attempt to create a positive image of the Middle East, became a quest for beauty and simplicity in a world of unrest and tragedy. In addition to the photo series, Verhoeff made a film about the region together with Pieter Paul Pothoven. The film, Mesopotamian Marshes, is also shown at the exhibition in Foam.
