Coming Home

During the U.S.-led NATO occupation of Afghanistan from 2001–21, the American military established a complex multinational supply chain to sustain what resembled a suburban enclave around Bagram Airfield, near Kabul. The compound was complete with fast-food franchises, recreation centers, a boardwalk, swimming pools, and tax-free retail stores stocked with consumer goods. Aziz Hazara: Coming Home seeks to return material discarded in Afghanistan following the American military’s abrupt withdrawal. Working with networks of local brokers, scrap dealers, and intermediaries who had long operated around the airfield’s waste economy, Aziz Hazara gathered items ranging from kneepads and uniforms to electronics, exercise equipment, recreational tools, kitchenware, tents, and fragments of infrastructure.