Geography: Europe > Northern Europe > United Kingdom
Year: 2022
Produced by: Touring installation presented by PlayCo, PuSh Festival, ANTI Festival and other venues
Creative Team: Created by Basel Zaraa
Synopsis: Basel Zaraa’s Dear Laila is an intimate one-person-at-a-time fifteen minute installation that recreates the artist’s destroyed family home in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus. Addressed to his daughter, Zaraa recalls sights and sounds of his childhood home through his Walkman, that audiences listen to over headphones. This repositions them in the perspective of a child, listening to parental narration of the past. Employing tactile detail and recorded storytelling, attendees will sit alone with a miniature of Zaraa’s former home as they as they encounter his story of Palestinian displacement and exile. Rather than using large-scale crisis imagery, the installation focuses on everyday objects and the emotional labour of explaining home after its destruction. The audience encounters loss carefully through touch and attention as Dear Laila emphasises the joys of community and family.
Source: Playco, Event Listing of Dear Laila: https://playco.org/event/dear-laila PuSh festival description of Dear Laila: https://pushfestival.ca/shows/dear-laila/ Good Chance theatre, artist development post for Dear Laila: https://www.goodchance.org.uk/stories/basel-zaraa