Nadine El Banhawy

In a house overflowing with family, noise, and endless interruptions, Laila searches desperately for a quiet spot to take a phone call with her therapist. As she dodges relatives and intrusions, the tension builds until she retreats under her bed: the only space left unclaimed.

What comes along and what do we leave behind? All of it, of us or just pieces and parts? Witnessing our short but memorable time in the UAE- Abu Dhabi; Our couch set or kanaba came back with us to egypt; narrating what it witnessed and felt back there, and How the absence of the gulf, is still present and felt here and now In a docu-fantasy video art, based on my family archive; I question my memory, revisit my childhood moments, recall changes in the family dynamics and get a new perspective for space, separation, time and loss

In a house overflowing with family, noise, and endless interruptions, Laila searches desperately for a quiet spot to take a phone call with her therapist. As she dodges relatives and intrusions, the tension builds until she retreats under her bed: the only space left unclaimed.

What comes along and what do we leave behind? All of it, of us or just pieces and parts? Witnessing our short but memorable time in the UAE- Abu Dhabi; Our couch set or kanaba came back with us to egypt; narrating what it witnessed and felt back there, and How the absence of the gulf, is still present and felt here and now In a docu-fantasy video art, based on my family archive; I question my memory, revisit my childhood moments, recall changes in the family dynamics and get a new perspective for space, separation, time and loss