Earthmoving

Eray Çaylı's Earthmoving examines how extractivism in Northern Kurdistan operates through both the physical displacement of earth and people and through affective visual strategies that move observers.

Drawing on collaborative work with local artists and long-term field engagement, the book focuses on the 2010s—a decade of ceasefires, peace talks, and renewed counterinsurgency—to analyze how images make violence visible yet can also be co-opted into extractive logics.

Çaylı conceptualizes 'earthmoving' to capture the intertwining of environmental intervention, war, and visual representation, showing how state-led repair projects and art both shape public sensibilities.

The book argues for attending to sites of extraction, theatres of war, and cultural production to understand and contest colonial extractivism.

It highlights collaborative, reciprocal artistic practices that resist commodifying or heroizing colonized peoples and their environments.