LEAVING THE DOORS OPEN.
We never intended the project to conclude with closure but with a readiness for return, allowing relationships and ideas to continue evolving, both when we were together physically and in between trips, when we were apart, through WhatsApp groups we created.
Ultimately, across geography, language, faiths, culture, and life circumstances, the value of this way of working lies in what you are willing and able to stay in relationship with.
“If the resilience of refugees were a pen, our collective efforts would serve as the ink – it is within our power to rewrite our past, shape our present and craft our future, ensuring that our voices are heard”
“The Healing Map” is the last piece that the Dzaleka Arts Lab makers created for us – a textile landscape which shows us the scale of the whole camp and is individually marked for where within this camp of 60,000 people, they live. Embroidered upon it also are proverbs that they have invented to live by, now. They have left space all around for the students at LCF to imagine and craft their own proverbs for living now, too.”
Proverbs to live by now
“Rushing is not reaching”.
“When you wake up, know that this is your morning”.
“The one who is patient eats the ripe fruit”.
“One tree cannot carry the whole roof”.
“If the chicken is dead, so are the eggs”.
“After the rain is a good moment”.
“A hard life is the lesson”.
“You cannot chase 2 rats at once”.
“Better 1 than zero”.
The story of DAL
“Dzaleka Arts Lab has no boundaries”
From the beginning, we were introduced to people from all parts of the camp, some who knew each other, some as strangers. By our 4th visit, the group had decided they wanted to stay together and formalise their presence, activities, and identity.
https://dzalekaartslab.org
On our last visit in May 2025, we learned that Dzaleka Arts Lab had been gifted a piece of land to build on – a prospective base/home for their community. On the day the land was consecrated, a young boy took a stick and drew these markings in the dust, as prayers of gratitude were being shared out loud. The land has stayed gifted but empty since.
A Delicate Nature – by a student from the MA Fashion, Textiles, Technology course at LCF.
The formal letter from the camp manager of Dzaleka to the authorities, requesting legal recognition of Dzaleka Arts Lab as a refugee-led community organisation. This brings rights to trade, make funding applications, and marks progress in the face of much collapse and insecurity.
“Inside the word ‘emergency’ is ‘emerge’; from an emergency, new things come forth. The old certainties are crumbling fast, but danger and possibility are sisters”.”