Amanat is conceived as a talisman—a small book held in the palm of the hand. It begins with a date seed and gradually opens into a forest of knowledge, moving through images that carry layered histories, both spoken and unspoken.

The book unfolds as a visual journey. As its pages turn, images emerge, disappear, and return, forming connections across different times and forms of knowledge. Rather than illustrating the film Amanat, the book extends its world through archival images gathered over years of research and work. 

Amanat, from the Arabic amānah, refers to something entrusted to one’s care—something that is not simply possessed, but carried, protected, and transmitted. At the heart of the book is the forest of Arslanbob in southern Kyrgyzstan and its stories of origin. From seed to forest, image to image, the archive becomes a form of inheritance: something received from the past and entrusted, for a time, to the present.

Publication: October 2026
Language: English
Hardcover
5,4 x 7 cm, 640 pages
1000 copies

Design: Metodo studio
Coedition: LUMA, Swiss Institute, Kunsthalle Bern