In the summer of 2024 we set out to dive deeper into our collaborative design process. This collection was made through in-depth dialogue, carefully teasing out the artisans’ subjectivities to tell untold stories of displacement. The unique pieces share intimate experiences of Abeer, Bathena, Ghada, Hallume, Mai, Mona, Miriam.

For our community of Syrian artisans, the weight of injustice and differentiation is becoming almost too heavy to bear. Time is distorted.  Movement is restricted. The bounds of a knowable world are tested. Left to carve out moments to feel their fragile sense of dignity, the burden of refugeehood has become folded into the seams of the ordinary. This new normalcy of oppression is disguised in the mundane. It remains an unspoken function of the everyday. 

‘Lamsa’ means touch: a physical touch, an emotional touch, a special touch. A call to rethink and reimagine forms of solidarity through craft. This collection is an invitation to do just that. By engaging in multifaceted refugee subjectivity we are moving beyond  ‘victim’ and ‘dependent’ imposed positions that strip refugee communities of their agency. Unspoken ascribes meaning to the hidden fight for dignity amidst compounding layers of crisis.