dear Laila mai Basel Zaraa
Arts & Life

Dear Laila is an installation about Palestinian displacement, at the MAI Feb. 7 to 22

by Savannah Stewart

Through one Palestinian family’s experience, Dear Laila reveals how war and exile shape everyday life, turning memory into a form of survival.

In an intimate, interactive installation at MAI, artist Basel Zaraa attempts to answer his five-year-old daughter’s questions about the land he cannot take her to. Recreating his childhood home in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp in Damascus, the work offers a deeply personal yet universal story of displacement and resistance. Through one Palestinian family’s experience, Dear Laila reveals how war and exile shape everyday life, turning memory into a form of survival. Inviting in one viewer at a time, it is a testament to the power of storytelling in reclaiming lost places. All profits from ticket sales will support the Palestinian Youth Movement.

Dear Laila is on at the MAI (3680 Jeanne-Mance) from Feb. 7 to 22, free entry for Palestinians / PWYC (minimum $10).

Dear Laila is an installation about Palestinian displacement, at the MAI Feb. 7 to 22

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Posted in Arts & Life

by Savannah Stewart

Contributing editor for Arts
Savannah Stewart is a freelance journalist and Managing Editor at The Rover. She is passionate about community reporting and is happiest writing about art, language and culture in Montreal.