Plein Sud: Architect, builder and artist are the words you use to describe yourself. What do they say about your practice?
Feda Wardak: These are terms I adopted a long time ago and have remained true to ever since. I draw, I design and I build. But architects, in general, draw but do not build. I, on the other hand, learned how to build, and that allows me to draw differently because I understand how materials hold, I know their weaknesses and their strengths. I also present myself as a visual artist, because visual artists also construct their own works. This shift first came through writing and publishing. At the end of my architecture studies, I set up a small publishing collective (Aman Iwan, ed.) with a group of friends, at the crossroads of political science, social sciences and critical geography. We published two important journals, which explored architecture through a political lens rooted in our territories of origin.
P.S.: For you, it was Afghanistan…
F.W.: Yes, I’ve been working on this geographical area for almost fifteen years now, focusing particularly on the question of water. I come from a rural territory in the Afghan mountains that depends on water to survive. I wanted to understand how agriculture could develop in such an arid land. I discovered a hydraulic system inherited from the Persian Empire — the karez. These underground irrigation galleries channel water from distant aquifers through tunnels that can sometimes stretch 30 or even 40 kilometres.
“At the Cairn, for the very first time, I chose to tell the story of water through its absence and to pay tribute to the craftsmen who still maintain these underground galleries.”
P.S.: This subject has fascinated you to the point of presenting it in art centres, most recently at the Cairn, in an exhibition titled Water Seekers…
F.W.: I find it incredible that those who began digging knew they would never see the water in their lifetime. It was a task that spanned generations. For me, that’s a radically anti-capitalist way of thinking: acting not for oneself, but for a community, with a vision of the common good. At the Cairn, for the very first time, I chose to tell the story of water through its absence and to pay tribute to the craftsmen who still maintain these underground galleries. So I created casts of bodies, which I then reproduced in plaster. I stapled them in places, reinforced them with scaffolding and supports. I then set these bodies in dialogue with large industrial water pipes, as if to highlight another kind of force. I didn’t want to recreate the setting of an underground gallery, but rather to evoke a different kind of strength. So there’s a connection between the earth, these pipes, and these bodies shaped by their labour.
P.S.: What are your next projects?
F.W.: I’ll soon be returning to Afghanistan to begin building an archive centre that will preserve the interviews conducted with the craftsmen, as well as their gestures, tools and know-how. I also plan to make a documentary on the subject. Otherwise, I’ve been working for three years with the Avant-Scène theatre in Cognac on the construction of a liveable public square on a river, designed to last ten years. It’s due to be launched either this autumn or next spring. I also have a project entitled What the Sky Doesn’t Know, about drone attacks in Afghanistan, planned for 2026 with the Fondation Cartier.
Follow Feda Wardak’s projects on his Instagram account.
Discover the new exhibition at the Cairn, a hub of contemporary art in Digne-les-Bains.