Basel Zaraa: Good Chance Commissioned Artist on ‘Dear Laila’

Good Chance Commissioned Artist Basel Zaraa tells us about Dear Laila, an installation that investigates the idea of ‘Home’ and what it means to him.

About Basel

Basel Zaraa is a Birmingham-based Palestinian musician and visual artist whose work explores how war and exile are experienced through the everyday struggles of his people.

His installation Dear Laila is a model recreation of his family’s destroyed house in Yarmouk Palestinian camp in Damascus, Syria, with a soundscape and narration to bring this lost space vividly to life.

Update!

Since its premiere at the Museum of the Home in April 2022, ‘Dear Laila’ has captivated audiences around the world. From Marseille to Austria and Switzerland (and even receiving the  ZKB Audience Award from Theatre Spektakel festival in Zurich!), Refugee Week in Leeds to Santarcangelo Festival in Italy, PuSh Festival in Canada and Teatro A Mil festival in Chile. The ‘Dear Laila’ tour has continued throughout 2024 in Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, and can still be seen at: Latitudes Contemporaines in Lille, France from 7 - 9 June; Theater Freiburg in Freiburg, Gemany from 13 - 16 June; Figura Festival in Baden, Germany from 20 - 22 June; and Respiro Festival in Sardinia, Italy from 24 - 29 June.

Can you tell us a bit about Dear Laila, the installation you’ve created for the Museum of the Home, and why you wanted to make it?

Dear Laila is inspired by my young daughter, Laila, asking me where I grew up. I couldn’t take her there, so the installation is me trying to bring the place to her. It’s a recreation of my destroyed family home in Yarmouk Palestinian camp in Syria - a story told through a miniature model, audio narration and different objects which the audience can find and touch.

‘Where did you grow up?’ is meant to be a simple question, but for us the answer involves a long story beginning with our exile from Palestine in 1948. Growing up as refugees in Syria, we were determined to return to Palestine, but in some ways Yarmouk camp also became our home. But then we lost this new home, too.

As the Museum's work is all about different ideas of home - when you hear the word home, what is the first image that comes to mind?

When I hear the word ‘home’ today, I think about family and community. Growing up as a refugee, ‘home’ always meant the country I wanted to return to. We felt that we were not living in our home, but in a temporary place, the camp. But after we lost this ‘temporary place’ too, and our community was scattered across Syria and the world, we realised that home has two meanings. Home is our land that we are struggling to return to, and home is also people. So I believe that wherever I go, I can make home through the people I meet.

What do you hope your audience will take away from Dear Laila?

Dear Laila is the story of a normal family living in extraordinary circumstances. I want the story to help people see how war and occupation are experienced by ordinary people, and how historical events like the Nakba (the exile of the Palestinians) go on affecting their everyday lives for generations.

If you could tell your past self anything about creating your home in the UK, what would it be? 

On a personal level, I feel lucky that I have a home in the UK. I have created memories over the past 10 years and have made a family and community here. I have space to breathe and am able to travel. At the same time, we cannot forget that while powerful countries like the UK may feel like safe places to live, their actions have robbed people of their homes in other parts of the world.

I believe that home should be available to everyone, regardless of where they live or the colour of their passport.

Basel’s installation will be exhibited in ‘Home, Migration, Belonging’ at the Museum of the Home from 12 April to 2 May 2022, alongside other commissioned artists Hamed Moradi and Andrea Ling. All three installations are free and open to everyone!