Dania Ezz
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Where Lies My Carpet is Thy Home is the result of an iterative design-research process that engaged directly with carpet merchants in Abu Dhabi’s historic carpet souk. Developed through extended fieldwork, the project emerged from a series of informal majlis gatherings where stories, memories, and cultural references were shared. These conversations became the foundation for a participatory design methodology that wove oral histories into material form.
The research focused on the everyday spatial and emotional geographies of merchants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, and India, mapping their memories of home onto the physical and symbolic terrain of the carpet. Rather than a literal illustration, the design abstracts these narratives into a layered visual language: valleys, rivers, and architectural fragments are used as recurring motifs. Each segment of the carpet was co-developed with input from the merchants, such as Wali’s remembered apple orchard in Afghanistan or Abdul’s shepherding routes in northern Pakistan.
The visual composition draws from both historical and contemporary references. Inspired by the coded symbolism of Afghan war carpets, the design also integrates digital aesthetics—pixelated grids and kilim-style structures that mirror 8-bit game environments. This hybridity reflects both the fragmentation and continuity of diasporic memory.
This project was made in collaboration with Christopher Joshua Benton for the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial