Phoenix

2024. Commissioned by Lahore Biennale.

Zheng Bo collaborates with seven Pakistani farmers living and working on a date palm farm outside Dubai, United Arab Emirates, to make a dance. The project, titled Phoenix, celebrates the beauty of the date palm (Phoenix dactylifera) and the skill of these stewards, highlighting intimate relations cultivated over millennia, vital to the economy and culture of the region.

Phoenix underscores the contribution of diasporic farmers to regional agriculture, while also drawing attention to the growing phenomenon of climate-induced migration, which in the coming decades is estimated to affect over a billion people, many of them in Asia.

Farmer-dancers:
Mubarak Essa Muhammad Essa
Khalid Mohammad Mohammad
Hamid Ali Muhammad Umar
Safi Ullah Muhammad Sharif
Zain Ullabideen Karim Bakhsh
Mehrab Khan Dil Murad
Ehsan Ulhaq Mubarik
 
Drummer:
Intzar Hussain
 
Ecosensibility:
Zheng Bo
 
Cinematography:
Mark Hobson
 
Sound recording:
Hisham Sharafeddine
 
Post-production:
Mark Hobson
 
Producers:
Nadine El Khoury
Sarah Ali
 
Special thanks to:
Saleh Moawiya Alshunnar
 
Commissioned by:
Lahore Biennale "Of Mountains and Seas"
curated by John Tain