Basel Zaraa: Dear Laila

photo: Christian Altorfer

“Dear Laila, you are five now and have started to ask me where I grew up, and why we can’t go there. This is me trying to give you an answer.”

The seeds of Dear Laila were planted when Basel’s five-year-old daughter began asking about his childhood home. Unable to take her there, he decided to bring the place to her by building a model of his childhood home in Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus.

Dear Laila shares the Palestinian experience of displacement and resistance through the story of one family, exploring how war and exile shape everyday life—both in private and public spaces. This intimate, interactive installation, experienced by one audience member at a time, uses the retelling of memories and tactile details to breathe life into a place now lost to destruction.