Opening Wild Waters: Dams And Deltas After Modernity

You are warmly invited to the opening of Wild Waters: Dams And Deltas After Modernity on Friday 19 June 2026 from 18:00 to 20:00. The exhibition is curated by Àngels Miralda and delineates the inextricable links between this natural life source, colonial expansion and territorial exploitation. During the opening, sound collective GalalaLive performs a live set.

GalalaLive is a dynamic sound collective founded in 2019 by artist Abdo Zin Eldin, whose work is on show in the exhibition Wild Waters. The collective engages with sonic practices from communities in Egypt that are increasingly at risk of erasure, re-articulating them through collaboration with international musicians and sound artists. GalalaLive perform a live set titled Hai (حيّ), which takes the form of a prayer or mantra intended to evoke accessibility to fresh water and resilience in challenging times. The performance features improvisation in sound and music, drawing inspiration from Egyptian Sufi zikr and Coptic chants, particularly as experienced during mawālid celebrations, where rhythmic trance and collective devotion emerge through breathing, repetition and poetry.

Programme

17:30 Doors open
18:00 Official opening
18:15 Live set by GalalaLive

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The exhibition Wild Waters: Dams And Deltas After Modernity (2026) explores the dual nature of water as both a life-sustaining resource and vector for political power and environmental degradation across multiple contexts, featuring works by artists Jumana Emil Abboud, Suzette Bousema, Ewa Ciepielewska & Agnieszka Brzeżańska, Giovanni Giaretta, Adelita Husni-Bey, Anna Moreno, Suat Öğüt, Eunice Pais, Ashfika Rahman, Morteza Soorani and Abdo Zin Eldin.

For centuries, inland water has been both a vital life source and a constant threat to Dutch society. In response, engineers have built dikes, canals, and storm surge barriers to protect land that lies below sea level.

During the era of global modernization, dams and river infrastructure came to symbolize progress. At the same time, water has also functioned as a method of displacement, contributing to environmental instability and, in some cases, creating the conditions for catastrophic flooding. Identifying it as both a natural life source and a tool within processes of colonial expansion and territorial exploitation, Wild Waters reveals water’s deeply entangled role in shaping human and ecological histories.

Location

Framer Framed
Oranje-Vrijstaatkade 71
1093KS, Amsterdam

Info & Credits

This event is in English. Admission is free, pay what you can. Do you also think art should be free and accessible? Please consider supporting us with a donation when registering or by becoming a Framer Framed Friend!

This event may be photographed and filmed. Kindly let us know in advance if you prefer not to have your picture taken. For seated programmes, places are always made available for wheelchair users. Please speak to the host before the programme begins.

Wild Waters: Dams And Deltas After Modernity is curated by Àngels Miralda and on show at Framer Framed until 30 August 2026.

Framer Framed is supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science; Amsterdam Fund for the Arts; Municipality of Amsterdam; and VriendenLoterij Fonds.