JUNCTIONS21: Friction & Flow: Environmental Resistance in the Aquatic Landscapes of Karachi
Zahra Malkani & Shahana Rajani

Themes

Karachi today is at the frontlines of the climate crisis — with floods, water shortages and heat waves becoming increasingly routine. At the heart of this crisis is a systematic forgetting, erasure and denial of Karachi’s indigenous ecology, indigenous communities and knowledges. The relationship between the city dwellers of Karachi and the ecology of this land has been marked by violence and a profound alienation. A course at Karachi LaJamia, initiated by the artists Zahra Malkani & Shahana Rajani, seeks to move beyond this painful disconnect into recognising and inhabiting, with care, our profound entanglements and shared destinies with the ecology of this city. The course aims to bring together a diverse range of people from different fields to learn, share and question existing knowledges about the city, to explore, imagine and enact other forms of relationality, connection and collectivity in/with the city, and to build solidarity with ongoing environmental struggles in Karachi.