Artist in residence in Umeå, 28 August—30 November 2025

My artistic practice interrogates technology as a means to reclaim and reconfigure our relationship with the body. I am interested in how speculative thinking, in dialogue with both technological and ecological frameworks, can deepen our understanding of selfhood, existence and interconnectedness.

Photo: Mohamed Kamal @by__kamal

Areej Ramzi Sha’ban Alhnaity

In my collaborative work with Huniti Goldox, an artist duo focused on collective imagining and reimagining, we delve into water, mythology and the interrelation of natural elements to engage with both present-day realities and historical narratives. Over five years of research across diverse sites including Amman, Tunis, Albania, and Leipzig, our work has taken form through films, installations, and workshops that challenge dominant geopolitical narratives, positioning water bodies and landscapes as contested sites of resistance shaped by political systems, societal transitions and structural violence.

As part of Golo Besmlah, we worked on rehabilitating a public garden by reintroducing native species, alongside organising exhibitions and workshops that emphasize ecological regeneration. Currently, we are involved in a project supporting food sovereignty in Gaza as a way to confront the violent extraction of resources, land grabbing and the destruction of agricultural livelihoods.

During my residency in Umeå, I plan to explore speculative tools for navigating life in future ecologies. Central to this inquiry is the notion that technology and nature can co-evolve symbiotically .I seek to conceptualise this co-evolution through what might be called a “survival kit”; an assemblage of practices, tools and rituals designed to respond to the complexities of a shifting world. The boreal forests and wetland ecosystems of northern Sweden will be sites of guidance, functioning as portals through which might inspire different relationships  to the Earth and the unknown forces that shape it.