Searching for the Home Within: This hand-tufted piece grew out of dialogues with North African and Mediterranean individuals who have experienced displacement, exploring what it means to carry “home” within oneself. Conversations lead to sketching, and then to emotional mapping. Searching for the Home Within weaves together symbols often found in Libyan culture – plants, fish, and the image of home. Through the act of making, it honours the emotional landscapes we build within ourselves when physical roots are shaken, preserving fragments of memory and identity through touch, form, and colour.

We Gather Around the Sardine: Inspired by a conversation with a Libyan immigrant, this piece grew from a memory of home rooted in the simple acts of care: preparing food, visiting the market, and gathering family around a shared meal. We Gather around the Sardine captures how love and culture are passed from hand to hand, kitchen to kitchen, through recipes, stories, and gestures.

Malak Elghuel is a Libyan artist and trainee therapeutic counsellor based between London and Dubai. With a background in art and design, her multidisciplinary practice blends storytelling, textiles, sound, and installations to explore themes of identity, connection, and healing. Drawing from her personal experience growing up in Libya and witnessing societal shifts firsthand, Malak’s research-led work examines social change in the MENA region, focusing on how transformation impacts both individuals and collective memory.

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Iskanje doma v sebi: Delo je nastalo ob pogovorih s severnoafriškimi in sredozemskimi posamezniki, posameznicami, ki so doživeli razselitev; raziskuje, kaj pomeni nositi »dom« v sebi. Pogovori so vodili k skiciranju, nato pa k čustvenemu kartiranju. Delo spaja simbole, ki jih pogosto najdemo v libijski kulturi – rastline, ribe in podobe doma; obenem se poklanja emocionalnim krajinam, ki jih gradimo v sebi, ko se zamajejo fizične korenine, ter ohranja drobce spomina in identitete preko dotika, oblike in barve.

Zberemo se okrog sardine: Delo, ki ga je navdihnil pogovor z libijskim priseljencem, je izšlo iz spomina na dom; ta se nahaja v preprostih dejanjih skrbi: v pripravi hrane, ob obisku tržnice in zbiranju družine okrog skupnega obroka. Delo prikazuje, kako se ljubezen in kultura prenašata iz roke v roko, iz kuhinje v kuhinjo, skozi recepte, zgodbe in geste.

Malak Elghuel je libijska umetnica in terapevtska svetovalka – pripravnica, ki živi med Londonom in Dubajem. Njeni področji sta umetnost in oblikovanje, njena multidisciplinarna praksa pa združuje pripovedovanje zgodb, tekstil, zvok in instalacije, s katerimi raziskuje tematike identitete, povezanosti in zdravljenja. Njeno raziskovalno delo, ki temelji na osebni izkušnji odraščanja v Libiji in doživljanja družbenih sprememb, preučuje družbene premike v državah Bližnjega vzhoda in severne Afrike, osredotoča se na to, kako spremembe vplivajo tako na posameznike kot na kolektivni spomin.