—Words inscribed on the tombstone of Emile Touma (1919-1985)

In this conversation with Sophie Ernst, a visual artist who explores architecture in relation to memory and cultural relativity in works that mix video projection and sculptural installation, Haya, who was also a prominent artist, talks about the childhood home of her husband Emile in Haifa. Unfortunately, Haya passed away in 2009, soon after their meeting.

These are edited excerpts from that conversation where Haya talks about home, memories, belonging, displacement and identity…

Some suggest an apology amounts to a free ticket to forget; I believe, however, that it can embody Eingedenken—a generative act of remembering the past in its present-day relevance.

During the first LOSS workshop (22 September 2018, University of Westminster), I discussed a public intervention in Wakefield, The Silent Empress (2012). In my talk, I shared what inspired its creation and argued that the work exemplifies Eingedenken by actively engaging with history to illuminate contemporary concerns. We frequently returned to the idea of apology, noting how it is often insincere, commodified, or otherwise flawed. Here, I reiterate my insights on The Silent Empress and expand on the concept of apology, advocating a deeper, more ethically charged engagement with the past.

This paper treats landscape as a dynamic, performative process, focusing on drawing, mapping, and storytelling as methods of inquiry. Using the HOME project as a case study, it examines how images of landscape both reveal and construct power relationships. In this project, artists, architects, and writers from Pakistan, India, Israel, and Palestine map and sketch the places they once called home, emphasising their ties to memory rather than the landscape’s aesthetic qualities. By investigating how recollections of specific topographies inform identity and political claims, I propose that drawing functions as a “graphical conversation” with history.