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UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage seeks to humanize the word “refugee.” Created during the summer of 2017, this multi-media installation is the work of Syrian-born, New Haven CT artist and architect Mohamad Hafez. and Iraqi-born writer and speaker Ahmed Badr.

For UNPACKED: Refugee Baggage Hafez sculpturally re-creates rooms, homes, buildings and landscapes that have suffered the ravages of war. Each is embedded with the voices and stories of real people — from Afghanistan, Congo, Syria, Iraq and Sudan — who have escaped those same rooms and buildings to build a new life in America. Their stories are collected and curated by Badr, who attends Wesleyan University and is himself an Iraqi refugee. Visitors experience short audio clips through headphones and can continue reading the stories online and on exhibit placards.

We are entrusted to give a voice to the voiceless: normal, kind, genuine and impressive people that society labels as marginal and insignificant.
— Mohamad Hafez

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Click the boxes to view each suitcase and hear its accompanying audio story.

 
 
 

UNPACKED IN PHOTOS

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Above by Rodney Nelson, Below by the United Nations 

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Special thanks to Richard Davies and Miranda Shafer of DaviesContent for producing the audio files accompanying each piece of the UNPACKED exhibit, and Gary Scott for composing the music.