In her work, artist and filmmaker Esraa Elfeky explores the complexrelationshipsbetween landscape, nature, and human experience.As part ofan ongoing exploration of her native Egypt, thedesert landscape becomesa recurring site of imagination and storytelling,often about historical andpolitical events between apocalypse,decay, and reconstruction. In her short filmI’ve Known Rivers,together with Saif Fradj, she researched desert areas in NorthAfricathat were once home to seas that dried up over time. Following aslow,meditative rhythm, the images trace the radical transformationof these places.As part ofThe Parliament of Marmots, EsraaElfeky adapted her ongoing projectentitledWhat is beyond youforthe natural history department of the MuseumGherdëina in Ortisei.In doing so, she appropriated the museum’s standard modesofpresentation to tell stories of apocalypse, survival, adaptation, andextinctionusing the example of non-human bodies, in this case,rare butterfly species. Shereflects on the power relations betweenhumans and animals by emphasizing thatanimals are often used asmetaphors with political connotations. The drawingspresent imaginary,hybrid butterflies inspired by endangered species that theartistresearched and documented in the mountains of SaintCatherine in Egyptand in the Alps in Switzerland.The idea of hybridity,as well as the strategy ofmating with other strains that occur innature, can be read in this sense as an actof survival in situations ofextreme change and catastrophe.