Disarming design من Palestine

On Saturday 28 March, we opened our first street gallery exhibition, The Absence of the Meaning of Home, presenting works by students from Birzeit University, Sint Lucas School of Arts, and Dutch scholars. Alongside the opening, Fasila Collective @fasila.collective hosted a public poetry reading in our studio, creating a shared space of listening, reflection, and collective presence around absence, home, and belonging under displacement. From now on, the gallery will host seasonal presentations that amplify Palestinian voices through design, storytelling, and resistance. This street gallery was made possible with the support of @recyclartbxl Recyclart Brussels and Brave New Works Amsterdam. The structure was designed by Moayad Najjar, produced by Sarah Mutuena, and installed and curated by Luke Shirock. 📍 Street Gallery — Pl. du Samedi 13, 1000 Brussels

The Absence of the Meaning of Home is an exhibition created through collaboration between Birzeit University, Sint Lucas School of Arts Antwerp, and Dutch scholars. Originally planned as a shared workshop, the project was interrupted when geopolitical violence halted travel. With students confined to their homes, our exhibition window became a space to reflect on absence, distance, and the meaning of home. Through fragments, gestures, and materials sent across distance, the exhibition asks: How do we imagine home when those meant to shape it cannot be present? — Artists and designers: Ibtisam Abukaff, Majd Abumadi, Rahaf Mansour, Demetra Cuschera, Sasha Anguelovskaia, Freja Nøhr Kristiansen, Eleni Ploumi, Lisa Bakker, Omar Abhar, Aya Alahmad, Batool Muadi, Malak Zahran, Shahd Faraj, Samra Roseboom, Melania Trejo Mendez, Elham Ahmadi, Eline Antonine Zeevat, Vladimir Babinchuk, Jawa Refai, Leen Foqaha, Raghad Suleiman, Aez Pinay, Berke Eren Gün, Anna Banout, Fareed Fareed, Lizzie Breen, Dayana Corzojoya Fascilitators: Mercedes Azpilicueta (Rietveld Academie), Rasha Dakkak (Rietveld Academie), Yasid El Rifai (Birzeit University), Anik Fournier (If I Can’t Dance), Sara Giannini (If I Can’t Dance), Ibrahim Muhtadi (Disarming Design from Palestine), Luke Shirock (Disarming Design from Palestine), Dennis Sobeh (Birzeit University), Dima Yaser (Birzeit University), Annelys de Vet (Sint Lucas School of Arts), Antoinette Vonder Muehll, and acknowledgements to Kurt Vanbelleghem — 📍 Pl. du Samedi 13, 1000 Brussels 🗓 March–June 2026 🔗 Visit the link in bio to learn more.

During six online lecture sessions with invited speakers, students and participants explored how the meaning of home is reshaped by displacement and uncertainty. Through shared conversations, the series reflected on how everyday practices and objects, from chairs to temporary structures like tents; evolve to accommodate life in a perpetual state of displacement. These lectures brought together artists, architects, and researchers whose perspectives opened new ways of thinking about space, memory, and belonging. — Participating artists and designers:
Ibtisam Abukaff, Majd Abumadi, Rahaf Mansour, Demetra Cuschera, Sasha Anguelovskaia, Freja Nøhr Kristiansen, Eleni Ploumi, Lisa Bakker, Omar Abhar, Aya Alahmad, Batool Muadi, Malak Zahran, Shahd Faraj, Samra Roseboom, Melania Trejo Mendez, Elham Ahmadi, Eline Antonine Zeevat, Vladimir Babinchuk, Jawa Refai, Leen Foqaha, Raghad Suleiman, Aez Pinay, Berke Eren Gün, Anna Banout, Fareed Fareed, Lizzie Breen Fascilitators:
Mercedes Azpilicueta (Rietveld Academie), Rasha Dakkak (Rietveld Academie), Yasid El Rifai (Birzeit University), Anik Fournier (If I Can’t Dance), Sara Giannini (If I Can’t Dance), Ibrahim Muhtadi (Disarming Design from Palestine), Luke Shirock (Disarming Design from Palestine), Dennis Sobeh (Birzeit University), Dima Yaser (Birzeit University), Annelys de Vet (Sint Lucas School of Arts), Antoinette Vonder Muehll, and acknowledgements to Kurt Vanbelleghem — 🎥 The lecture recordings remain available online. 🔗 Visit the link in bio to watch the lectures.

In the last few months, we have been developing our new street gallery in the centre of Brussels. From now on, every season we will curate a new presentation that amplifies Palestinian voices, design and resistance. The gallery is made possible with the support of Recyclart Brussels @recyclartbxl . The construction is designed by Moayad Najjar @moayarch , produced by Sarah Mutuena @recyclartfabrik and installed and curated by Luke Shirock @luke.ae Our first exhibition 'The absence of the meaning of home' is made together with students of the Birzeit University in Palestine @birzeit.university , students from Sint Lucas School of arts (Socio-political masters context) @sintlucasantwerpen and Dutch scholars, and will be on display till June. @samedizaterdag

Yesterday, we gathered for a book reading with Fasila Collective, hosted in collaboration with @disarmingdesign Together, we explored absence, home, and the shifting meanings of belonging under conditions of forced displacement and exile. What unfolded was not only a reading, but a shared space of listening, reflection, and collective relieving. From different geographies and experiences, voices came together — carrying fragments of memory, loss, and imagination — reminding us that home is not fixed, but continuously negotiated. This moment is part of an ongoing process. More to come soon.🤗 #Fasila_collective #diasporavoices #home #bookreading #artasinquiry

Since October 2025, the collaborative project “The Meaning of Home: A Perpetual State of Displacement“ has brought together young artists and designers from Birzeit University in Palestine, Sint Lucas School of Arts in Antwerp in Belgium, the Gerrit Rietveld Academie, the School for New Dance Development, and If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part of Your Revolution in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. The students, teachers and guest speakers have been meeting online for five months across three localities, to reflect on the meaning and memory of home amidst erasure and displacement. Taking place against the backdrop of an ongoing assault on Palestinian identity—its origins, its expressions, and its futures—the programme has explored what it means to belong to a place. What is the meaning of home, when its inhabitants are forced to carry it with them, reconstructing it anew with each displacement? This collaborative initiative came together as an act of bearing witness to the ongoing violence in Palestine, from the settler-colonial practices in the West Bank and Jerusalem to the ongoing genocide in Gaza, where people have long lived in a constant state of displacement and now face the destruction of entire cities, neighbourhoods, communities, and ways of living and creating. The cohort supposed to spend a week sharing and working together in person at the Sint Lucas School of Arts in Antwerp. The gathering should have culminated in a collective exhibition in Antwerp and Brussels. Video by: Batool Muadi, Aya Alahmad

The Absence of the Meaning of Home How to present "the meaning of home" in the absence of those meant to imagine it? The Meaning of Home was conceived as a group exhibition that would have been one result of a week-long workshop, led by Disarming Design, with students from Birzeit University in Palestine @birzeit.university , Sint Lucas School of Arts in Antwerp @sintlucasantwerpen , and Dutch Scholars.  Online exchanges over the past months had planted the seeds of a collective process, a collaboration that was about to come to fruition. Flights were booked, visas arranged, suitcases nearly packed.  Then, as if awaking to a half-remembered dream, recurring and all-too real: the sky filled with missiles and drones, blotting out the light, only the glowing afterimage of a bright white shadow where the sun had been. The US and Israel had waged war on Iran.  All flights were cancelled. The workshop was called off. The collaboration cut short. Now, our newly-built exhibition window sits empty, filled only with this absence, and the demand to think anew the terms of collective imagination and action.  The Absence of the Meaning of Home gathers the traces of this forestalled encounter: fragments, drafts, gestures of care, embroidered gauze, postcards sent from a distance widened by geopolitical violence.  You are warmly invited to the opening of our new gallery space and first exhibition on March 28th, 17:00, Place du Samedi 13, 1000 Brussels (@samedizaterdag ).  Works from our permanent collection will be on display alongside the current exhibition. Drinks and food will be available through the neighbouring restaurants. Earlier that day, at 14:00, Fasila Collective (@fasila.collective ) will host a public reading in our studio (4th floor), exploring absence and the meaning of home under conditions of forced displacement. You are more than welcome to join. Space is limited for the 14:00 reading, so please register via the link in our bio. See you on the 28th!  In solidarity ________ Photo #1 Useless but Priceless Credit Ibrahim Muhtadi   Photo #2 Quiet rituals Credit Raghad Suleiman  Photo #3 Where they are Credit Shahd Faraj

IT’S TODAY!! More than 50 stands ✶ crafts ✶ tattoos ✶ henna ✶ food ✶ art ✶ jewelry ✶ clothing ✶ prints ✶ hair & more. With @swipa.brussels @disarmingdesign @this.is.muk @nour_foundation_ @migratingisaright @holdinghandsjewellery @leilasaidbounoua @morf_inne @puchi_boredom @mashiro.t @crheathcote @mabzzzzzzzzzz @alicetradoggo @wear_a_keffieh @duha_and_art @line_a_mower @typic.aelix and many more ! 💰𝗯𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗮𝘀𝗵 💰 + bring your clothes to personalize, exchange, transform. This fundraiser is about gathering, celebrating, resisting and supporting Palestinian communities in Brussels. Every beat played, every tattoo inked, every ticket bought contributes directly to solidarity on the ground and to uplift the Palestinian communities. 📍 Les Halles de Schaerbeek @halles.be s 📅 Friday 20.02 🕔 17:00 – 00:00 come through, let’s be biiiiiiiig !

We ended the year with a pop-up presence at @passaporta during the Christmas season. It was less about transactions and more about sharing stories and craftsmanship offline through face-to-face interactions, something we deeply valued. This spirit of togetherness continued as we hosted an intimate dinner at our studio for visiting international curators through @Kunstenpunt . Artists and cultural workers from diverse backgrounds gathered around the table, sharing food, experiences, and a moment of genuine exchange beyond professional labels. The event coincided with the soft-opening of a new gallery installation on the ground floor of our studio building at Zaterdagplein. December also brought us to diverse collective spaces: a benefit night for Gaza at @elzenhof Community Centre; International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People at the Residence Palace, in collaboration with the Mission of Palestine to Belgium, Luxembourg, and the EU,  as well as ‘Shopping Against Genocide’ in Amsterdam by @nolimitsartcastle . We closed the year without conclusions, rather with open conversations around shared meals, and a renewed sense of why we do what we do, together. #2025 #endtheoccupation #savegaza #keepresisting #freepalestine  ▬▬▬ 📸 1–4 Pop-up shop at Passa Porta, Brussels. 📸 5–6 Intimate dinner hosted at our studio for visiting international curators through Kunstenpunt. 📸 7-8 Benefit night for Gaza at Elzenhof Community Centre, Brussels. 📸 9-11 International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People at the Residence Palace, Brussels.  ▬▬▬ 🖤 If you like what we do and want to support our collective work in solidarity with Palestinian makers, please consider becoming a regular supporter; even €10 a month can help to amplify cultural resistance through dialogue and design. Link in bio.

In November, we participated in Shopping Against Genocide, a critical show hosted by @nolimitsartcastle . The exhibition examined complicity, purchasing power, and the everyday choices we make, reminding us that consumption is never neutral. Within this setting, we designed a small, curated display corner, showcasing handcrafted pieces brought to life through patient technique. The corner unfolded a quiet narrative, inviting visitors to pause, engage, and reflect.  November reminded us that design carries responsibility, and that taking a stance can live in the details: in care, intention, and the work of continuing. #2025 #endtheoccupation #savegaza #keepresisting #freepalestine  ▬▬▬ 📸 1–3. 3D visualisation of the display corner, by @moayarach . 📸 4-5 Display corner preparation and temporary poster installation during construction. 📸 6–9. Shopping Against Genocide exhibition. ▬▬▬
 🖤 If you like what we do and want to support our collective work in solidarity with Palestinian makers, please consider becoming a regular supporter; even €10 a month can help to amplify cultural resistance through dialogue and design. Link in bio.

October marked a new chapter with the official opening of our new studio in Brussels, a shared moment with friends, supporters, and collaborators, and in the presence of the Mission of the State of Palestine. The studio provided a new home base, grounding the collective work that we do.  We also participated in the Gaza Travel Agency at Dutch Design Week, contributing to a speculative design project that invited conversations about displacement, memory, and imagined futures rooted in justice and return. This month, we also encountered new audiences through a pop-up presence at the WIELS book fair, opening space for exchange beyond fixed formats and familiar audiences. October reminded us that futures are not only imagined; they are built actively through conversation and collective presence. #2025 #endtheoccupation #savegaza #keepresisting #freepalestine  ▬▬▬ 📸 1–8 From the opening of the studio, Brussels. 📸 9–11 Pop-up presence at the WIELS Book Fair, Brussels. ▬▬▬ 🖤 If you like what we do and want to support our collective work in solidarity with Palestinian makers, please consider becoming a regular supporter; even €10 a month can help to amplify cultural resistance through dialogue and design. Link in bio.

September marked an important moment of transition as we moved into our new studio, an important step toward stability and sustained collective work. The space began to take shape not only as a place for making, but as a shared point of presence and care. This move was made possible by your generous donations and support. During the same month, we were invited by the Mission of the State of Palestine to take part in a charity bazaar, supporting the Right to Education for Gaza’s children. The event was part of the Back to Education campaign, organised with the kind support of SOS Kinderdorpen België @sos_kinderdorpen_be and hosted by the Spouses of Arab Ambassadors in Brussels. September underscored the importance of space, as wellد as the fundamental right of education for all, even in the hardest of times. #2025 #endtheoccupation #savegaza #keepresisting #freepalestine  ▬▬▬ 📸 1–8. Moving into our studio, Brussels. 📸 9–12. Charity bazaar supporting education for Gaza’s children, Brussels. ▬▬▬ 🖤 If you like what we do and want to support our collective work in solidarity with Palestinian makers, please consider becoming a regular supporter; even €10 a month can help to amplify cultural resistance through dialogue and design. Link in bio.