2 / 11 / 2026

“The value of art and culture lies not only in the creative work itself but also in the relationships, ideas, and dialogues it fosters, and in its ability to build bridges between people.”

A home is rarely just a physical structure. It is where personal histories unfold, where generations leave their traces, and where a sense of belonging takes shape. But what happens to those connections when a home is lost?

Sudanese artist and cultural activist Sahar Salah explores this question through Homes Dwelt by Nostalgia, an AFAC-supported multimedia project documenting Nubian architecture in Sudan and the people whose lives are connected to it. Combining photography with poetry, music and oral history, the work pays particular attention to women as custodians of memories that risk disappearing alongside the homes themselves.

The project takes place against the backdrop of Sudan's ongoing war, where displacement has transformed people's relationships with the places they once called home. Sahar has experienced that displacement herself.

One moment during the development of Homes Dwelt by Nostalgia remains particularly vivid. While documenting the experiences of residents who had lost their homes, she sat with them, listening to their stories.

“We sat together atop the remains of their homes, which had been buried by the circumstances… and the rubble became a gathering place that brought us together.”

What began as an effort to document disappearing homes became something more personal.

“There, I realized that ‘Homes Dwelt by Nostalgia’ is not merely a documentary project—but an ongoing reflection on pain and displacement, and an extension of the voices of people who refuse to fade away.” As the project developed, Sahar began to recognize how the process allowed her to confront her own experience of displacement.

“That moment served as a reminder that listening to their stories and spending time with them was a form of presence and resistance,” she recalls. Documenting these encounters became part of her own healing, offering a way to understand her experience through the resilience of others.

Continuing this work, however, has not been without challenges. Sahar points to the economic pressures facing artists across the region, where cultural production often depends on personal resources or short-term external funding.

“The arts are still sometimes treated as a luxury rather than an essential part of public life,” she says.

She believes the responsibility for sustaining artistic practice cannot rest on artists alone. Stronger networks of collaboration and more sustainable cultural policies are essential to creating conditions in which artists can continue their work.

Against this backdrop, AFAC's support enabled Sahar to present the first exhibition of Homes Dwelt by Nostalgia in Sudan in early 2026.

The exhibition brought together her photographs with original compositions by Sudanese musician Asim al-Tayyib Qurshi and texts by writer Musab Muhammad Abdulhamid. Together, these elements invited audiences to encounter the homes not simply as buildings, but through the lives and experiences they held.

“This support was a lifeline,” Sahar says, reflecting on what it meant to receive financial and moral support while navigating displacement during the war.

She is now preparing a second exhibition outside Sudan, hoping to bring these encounters to audiences beyond the country's borders.

Through Homes Dwelt by Nostalgia, Sahar has found a way to document the daily struggles of people living through displacement, particularly women, while reflecting on her own experience of loss.

The project does not attempt to restore what has been destroyed. Instead, it creates space for people to tell their stories in their own voices, and for those stories to continue being heard even when the places they describe are no longer there.