Wharfage
Oct. 15, 2008 - May 16, 2009
At first, in 2008-2009, a project on the creek in Sharjah, from where a large number of ships leave for ports in Somalia.
This arrow of trade (in which Foucault's heterotopic ship is not an escape from but an entry into the space of conflict) became our subject. It offers an opportunity to think about how "business" in this context, and the relations between people that ground it, avoids the business of war, and how a "free port" created in Somalia by the lack of a customs regime, mirrored by Sharjahs' "cheap port", produces a "free trade" not governed by the WTO. With conflict up ahead and economic crisis at its tail
(and pirates in the middle), this movement of goods and their sailors may
trace old trade routes, but maps out something new: a contemporary landscape of new and used
objects, refrigerators, dentist chairs, pink limousines and baby food, labour, charcoal (the only bulk item on the return journey), Asian and African diasporas, and giant wooden ships being built in Salaya, Gujarat.
The project consists of two parallel pieces: Wharfage, a book containing two years of port records related to the Somali trade;
and Radio Meena, four evenings of radio transmissions from the port in Sharjah, which broadcast in a 5+ kilometre radius songs, commentary, phone and ship radio conversations with ships in Salaya, in Bossaso and enroute, accounts from Gujarati sailors, loaders from Dera Gazi Khan and NWFP in Pakistan, Sikh truckers, Iranian shopkeepers, Somali trading agents. All of whom spoke hindustani (hindi+urdu) as a common language of the port.
The book was republished in 2022.
Wharfage is a CAMP project invited by the 9th Sharjah Biennial, 2009.
As part of the program "Past of the Coming Days",
curated by Tarek Abou el Fetouh.
CREDITS:
In Sharjah:
Production: Amna Ali Abdulla and Mohamed Tohami.
Data Entry and Translation: Khalid Abdul Khaleq Abdulla, Mohammed Al Ahdal
Mohammed Al Shaibani, Hala Al Hedeithy, Omar Arif, Alaa Edriss, Sameh Ghassan, Nada Al Jasmi, Khalid Mezaina, Noaf Yusif.
Manifests and port records:
with the cooperation of Jarsh Mohammed Jarsh, Ahmed Mohammed Iqbal, Esam Eisa Al Hashmi, Jamal
Ahmed Abdalla Al Shaikh, Abdul Rahman Saeed Bughanim, Ahmed Abdul
Rahma, Ahmed Abdul Bughanim, Eisa Khalifa Bin Qasmoul, Majid Rahma Al
Shamsi, Hamad Sultan Abu Shibs, Muneer Mukilapeedikayil from the Department of Seaport and Customs (Sharjah Creek Customs).
From CAMP:
Research and interviews: Shaina Anand, Nida Ghouse, Hakimuddin Liliyawala, Ashok Sukumaran, Samira Nadkarni.
Database Software: Sanjay Bhangar.
Texts: Ashok Sukumaran, Nida Ghouse, Shaina Anand.
Photographs: Nida Ghouse, Hakimuddin Liliyawala , Shaina Anand (Sharjah), Samira Nadkarni (Salaya).
Copy Editing: Zinnia Ambarpardiwala, Samira Nadkarni.
Book design: Europa, London.
Printed at: Spenta Multimedia, Bombay.
This publication accompanies Radio Meena (100.3 FM), four days of radio broadcasts on the Sharjah Creek:
Radio Sound Engineer: Shuaib P.
Radio Voice / RJ: Ryan D' Souza, Hakimuddin Lillyawala.
With many thanks to:
Muhammad Rafiq and crew on M.S.V. Nazre Karam.
Abdul Rashid Bhaya, Adam Noor Mohammed Bhaya, Adam Bhaya, Gafur, Zubair, Abu Bakar, Ali and rest of the crew on M.S.V. Faize Sultane Khwaja.
Ibrahim bhai, Hamid bhai, Bashir Uthad, Osman and rest of the crew on M.S.V. Ghoushe Vashila
Akbar bhai on M.S.V. Madina Zulficar, Hussain Bhaya on M.S.V. Al Bismillah, Eesa Ali bhai on M.S.V. Ratna Sagar, Siddique Umar and Junis on M.S.V. Sabir Priya.
Mohammed Abdul Qadir and his father Abdul Qadir from Al Tayseer Shipping Company.
Mohammed Salat, Yusuf, Farrah and other Somali Traders.
Saad Samir, Jack Persekian, Lara Khaldi, Khalid Mezaina, Noura Randle, Maya Nasser and Sevdar Khan at the Sharjah Biennial.
Mia Frostner and Paul Tisdell at Europa, London.
Catalina Lozano and Anna Colin at Gasworks, London.
Janna Graham at Serpentine Gallery, London.
Rob la Frenais and Gillean Dickie at Arts Catalyst, London.
Rishita Chandra and Minoo Davar at Spenta Multimedia Production, Mumbai.
Jan Gerber and Sebastian Lütgert at Pirate Cinema, Berlin.
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