Kashgar Commons

Ongoing

In collaboration with Ursula Engel and Stijn Deklerck
Photographs
Series of approx. 600

How do we represent a city which has already disappeared? Starting in 2009 the Chinese government demolished the Old City of Kashgar — the heartland of the Uyghur Muslim minority — and began to erect a modern city in its place. At the beginning of the destruction, our team and took over 600 photographs of the old city, documenting the site before it was razed. We are currently exploring how to make visible the Old City again through conversations with partner archives, collecting oral histories, as well as returning to document what has risen in its place. This project is ongoing.

A screenshot of a website containing a description of the project.
Web archive
A screenshot of a website containing a satellite photograph of Kashgar.
Web archive
A screenshot of a website containing photographs of Kashgar.
Web archive
A scenic view from a high point of Kashgar.
Kashgar overview
A photograph on ground level between two brick buildings with a child leaning against one of them staring into the lens of the camera.
Old City of Kashgar 2009
A photograph on ground level between two brick buildings with turquoise doors.
Old City of Kashgar 2009
Three children playing with a soccer ball on the streets of Kashgar.
Old City of Kashgar 2009
A photograph on the street between two buildings with wooden beams above, one of them has fallen.
Old City of Kashgar 2009
A photograph of children playing in the streets of Kashgar.
Old City of Kashgar 2009
A photograph of buildings mid demolition, with a ferris wheel in the background.
The beginning of the 2009 demolition