Failaka Is a Beautiful Island
Mohammed Alkouh
Publication Grant
Failaka Is a Beautiful Island is a visual and archival documentation of Failaka Island first urban planned community, abandoned after the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Combining photography, maps, drawings, and collected objects, creating a record of the island’s modernist architecture and its displaced inhabitants, the Alfailakawya. By reconstructing Failaka’s final layer as an uninhabited relic, the project explores memory, displacement, and the fragility of cultural heritage in the Gulf.
This project serves as both a lasting archive and a critical reflection on how histories of modernity and erasure are remembered.
Mohammed Alkouh
Mohammed Alkouh (b. 1984, Kuwait) is a visual artist whose work encompasses analog photography, hand drawings, archival materials, and hand colored black and white photographs. His practice explores the liminal space between past and present, reflecting on how historical conditions resurface in contemporary life. He investigates fragmented memories and decaying structures, examining the intersections of identity, history, and transforming landscapes.