Is The Dam High Enough?
This project examines the consequences of this shift through material behavior. Working with Nile mud in a liquid state, sediment is poured onto sand, trapped, and allowed to dry without intervention. The resulting deformations register internal stresses caused by containment and water loss, producing variation rather than standardized form. Alongside these fragments, comparative material samples and collected clay objects trace how clay bodies circulate, substitute one another, and become standardized across craft and industrial contexts in Egypt.
By framing accumulation as a structural condition, the project examines how infrastructure reshapes the ways sediment is used, understood, and valued in material culture. Nile silt is treated as a material suspended between past circulation and uncertain future use, raising questions about how matter rendered an infrastructural by-product might still inform relations between land, making, and systems of governance.
Material: Nile silt
Process: Slip-casting on sand
Supported by Pro Helvetia Cairo.
2026 - Fayoum - EGP.
Produced in Fayoum Pottery School in Tunis Village.
Many thanks to Angelo, Amin, Mahmoud and Ashfour.
Photos by Studio Eidola.
In ancient Egypt, the Nile was not simply a body of water. It was a system of life. It was a source of abundance, a carrier of fertile soil, and a foundation for architecture, crafts, farming, and daily life. It was tied to mythology, religion, and systems of knowledge. It enabled nourishment, movement, cleansing, and renewal, while also holding the potential for destruction.
The Nile moved in cycles: flood, cultivation, harvest. These rhythms defined the three seasons of the year. From above, its delta and basin resemble a lotus flower, a sacred symbol in ancient Egypt, often associated with creation and renewal. The seasonal flood itself was personified through deities such as Hapi, who was believed to be born from a lotus flower.
Today, it is difficult to grasp these material realities. The river still flows, but many of its meanings have shifted or faded. What was once understood as a living, cyclical system is now often approached as a managed resource, regulated and controlled. This condition is not unique to the Nile. It reflects a broader transformation in how environments are understood and engaged. In this shift, a question emerges: how does the loss of direct material connection reshape the way we perceive the world?
Image 2: The Nile mosaic of Palestrina. Italy.
Image 3: Hapi depiction. Carving on the wall of Dendera Temple.
Along with social or environmental consequences, there were also material ones. For thousands of years, the Nile’s floodwaters transported fertile silt, renewed agricultural soils, flushed salts, and provided raw material for architecture and craft. With the dam trapping most of the river’s sediment behind, these processes have largely stopped. Downstream fertility declined, salinity rose, and its delta began to erode faster.
In the meantime, new dams are being planned further upstream, driven by the need for energy and water security. Because the Nile crosses many borders, these projects are closely tied to political tensions, especially where downstream countries depend heavily on its flow. Climate change adds another layer of uncertainty. In parts of the basin that rely on seasonal rains, precipitation is becoming less predictable, and in some cases, decreasing. Together, these changes are reshaping how the river is shared, understood, and lived with.
Image 2: Illustrated section of the Aswan High Dam.
Image 3: Encyclopaedia Britannica. Aswan High Dam.
Image 4: Esri Imagery. Lake Nasr.
Image 5: Relocation of Temple Abu Simbel. Photo by Per-Olow Anderson, 1967.
Mud was the primary building material. Beyond temples and tombs, most structures were made from sun-dried bricks composed of Nile silt, water, and chopped straw or manure. Brick making was a local, mundane practice in which material was gathered, shaped, used, and returned.
With the completion of the Aswan High Dam, most of the Nile’s sediment is now retained behind, and no longer arrives cyclically. The extraction of Nile silt is largely restricted, both to preserve what remains for agriculture and to prevent further erosion. As a result, access to this foundational material has diminished, and the building practices had to shift toward other clay sources such as mountain clays. Unlike the river’s deposits, these materials require extraction, transport, and processing.
Today, in areas around Cairo, parts of the brick industry still partly rely on older deposits of black Nile mud. A few small-scale practices continue to work with silt where it is possible. But the conditions have changed.
On the other side, incoming silt settles at the bottom of Lake Nasr and has effectively become a by-product of the infrastructure. As sediment accumulates, it gradually reduces the reservoir’s storage capacity, which may pose long-term challenges. Over time, this limits the dam’s ability to buffer floods and store water during droughts. In this sense, the question extends beyond infrastructure itself: is the dam high enough?
Image 2: Madinet Habou (Temple d’Amon), Luxor.
Image 3: Nile silt deposits along the Nile, still collected and used by the brick making practices. Sudan.
Image 4: Old Nile silt deposits and clay extraction. Dashur.
Image 5: Old Nile silt deposits and clay extraction. Dashur.
Situated within a post-craft condition, the work shifts agency away from the maker, treating form as the outcome of initiated processes rather than direct fabrication.
They produce the well-known “bukla” pots using a distinctive hammering technique. The clay, collected from a nearby branch of the Nile, is mixed with straw to improve workability and stability. Shaping involves a coordinated use of hands and feet, and allows skilled craftsmen to quickly form spherical vessels. Pots were traditionally used for water cooling and storage, and today more and more for decoration, gardens and as small stoves.
The pots are left to dry in the sun before being fired in self-built kilns. Firing temperatures reach around 600–700°C. Due to the low firing temperature and the burnout of the straw, the resulting vessels remain highly porous. Porosity helps to keep the water cool thanks to the evaporation.
Nile silt is mixed with straw and water, then shaped into molds. A single maker produces around 2,000 bricks per day. The bricks are left to dry for about a week, then stacked into self-built kilns and sealed with wet clay. They are fired with wood, reaching temperatures of approximately 600–800°C.
The material composition includes mountain clay (often referred to locally as yellow tafla), desert sand, and a darker clay derived from older deposits of Nile silt, currently extracted in areas such as Dahshur.
The type of bricks produced here are among the most widely used building materials in Egypt today, typically combined with reinforced concrete structures. In the industrial area of Helwan, south of Cairo, there are around 600 brick producers operating with similar methods.