Safina Projects CIC

Through the art and design of the Ark Re-imagined, Safina Projects CIC explores the ancient craft traditions of Mesopotamia, seeking to understand, protect and revitalise Iraq’s vernacular heritage, and to create new roles for the crafts in shaping the region’s future. Rashad Salim is an artist whose work engages with the history of culture, and draws on extensive research into academic literature on ancient watercraft, as well as his experience of ancient boat reconstructions and expeditions: - The Tigris Reed Boat Expedition led by Thor Heyerdahl in 1977, voyaging across the Indian Ocean; - The Tigris Flotilla with Nature Iraq in 2013, a journey from Turkey to the Iraqi marshes in traditional boats. In 2016 Rashad returned to Iraq to begin fieldwork on a new project, the Ark Re-imagined. This asks what the Ark would look like if it was based on the craft traditions of Mesopotamia, built using materials and techniques that were available at the time of the ancient Flood in the region. He travelled around the country to explore the making of ancient boats and traditional crafts that use locally harvested materials, which have connected Iraqi culture with its natural environment for millennia. The project's first major achievement was to revive production of Guffa coracles in Babylon. The last surviving Guffa maker there had stopped making them after the 2003 invasion. With our commission to produce Guffas for models and prototypes of the Ark Re-imagined, a new generation of trainees began learning the traditional skills in 2016 and brought back this ancient watercraft from the brink of extinction. Rashad established Safina Projects CIC in 2017, with project manager Hannah Lewis, to deliver the Ark Re-imagined project and its programme of boat construction, river journeys, research, artworks, events, and capacity-building outcomes for the Iraqi crafts and cultural heritage sector.