A gathering at Wael and Rabih

Tribute to a Sanctuary

Crafting a home is one of the most meaningful and demanding things we do. It takes years of careful thought and dedication to assemble furniture, dishes, pictures, rugs, cushions, and more, forming a unique place we call home. This demanding process requires us to find objects that not only serve a practical purpose but also reflect our identity. In this personal journey of homemaking, we’re not just putting together physical elements; we’re building a haven that resonates with our identity. Our home becomes more than a collection of items; it transforms into a repository of memories that shape the narrative of our lives, providing a space where we return to ourselves.

To help express the warmth of home, we asked three artists we know to share their thoughts about what home means to them. We hope they will touch your hearts like they touched ours.

HOME – Salim Mrad (for Zenobie)

As I sit down and ask my angel to guide me towards words of truth regarding the meaning of home, two songs come to my memory. First, a beloved tune from another era of my life: “My home is where you are, in every beat, in every beat we’re closer…”, sings Johnny McDaid on Paul Van Dyk’s 90’s trance hit. I am touched by this idea of a home that is moving, one that is ever-expanding like the ever-expanding universe we live in (and are part of). I am touched by the idea of a constant state of both anticipation for the blissful encounter and gratitude for the reunion that is already always happening. It’s an endless dance. Whenever we step out on a balcony and look at the stars, do we remember that we are not in some fixed spectator’s position looking at celestial objects moving in the skies, but rather moving passengers on a spinning home twirling in the great unknown?

No home can be fixed or permanent because our human condition is a mesmerizing condition of a Ferris wheel passenger (or a roller coaster’s). What an ecstatic adventure indeed! What else could it be? The second song that comes to mind is one I directed a music video for eleven years ago (yes, eleven…): “Home” by Lebanese band Sandmoon. On this track, Sandra Arslanian sings: “Didn’t find my rest in those desert streets, didn’t find a place where I could feel free”. Therefore, finding one’s home can also be a lifelong quest. Every time we reach a mountain plateau and rest a bit
to enjoy the view, there comes a new calling to some higher ground, to another side of the mountain. Settling somewhere once and for all can sometimes be the thing we need to do the less.

My experience with my childhood house is one particular story. I’ve been returning to the same geographic spot for a while. My family and I left it first in 2013, then I came back to it (within a new apartment, meters above the former) in June 2020, just to be evicted from it again a few weeks later because of the port blast. Ten months later, I was back, but I did not have the same vision this time. I was not the same person anymore. My house was not just my own private sanctuary, but a place for encounters and growth. Is it my home still? Maybe, for the moment.

My home is where You are.
In every beat, we’re closer.

Salim Mrad
Lebanese Filmmaker and Author

Salim’s favorite Zenobie Homeware product is the Poppy Placemat.

دار – Nadine Touma (for Zenobie)

The word Dar دار has echoed so deeply and profoundly in the current war on Gaza. Dar is an Arabic word that we chose to include in our name Dar Onboz and Ahl elDar. Dar means the land the home the circle the inside or the Center that links everything together in a traditional Mashriqi Levantine home. It’s both a masculine and a feminine noun ; in Arabic everything has a gender the sun is a she, the moon is a he and the Dar is a she-he. In every appearance of any Palestinian child adult or elderly you hear the word Darna our home , Diritna our Neighborhood, Dyarna our collective homes and AlDar for the homeland. That Aأ in the Center of that word the Aأ that is pronounced like an Ah ! An Aأ that reaches upward with our lips pronunciation like our Alef أ the first letter of our alphabet. Aأ screams pain and joy, love and hate , anger and serenity, past and present, endings and beginnings, earth and sky. Home is that Aأ which has encompassed the primordial scream of birth the first sound we make to the last breath we take. Home is where that Aأ has no beginning no end and yet it’s where the sky meets our roots.

I have carried it with me everywhere I go and planted it in everything I do and tell it in every tale I tell and pass it on to everyone I meet and safeguard it in everything I weave.

I will end with our beautiful wishes bestowed to us by our ancestors Darna Darkom our home is your home but only if , if you deserve it because this hospitality and generosity is no longer unconditional, our Dar with all its knowledge is scared and can only be offered to those who will honour it and protect it, keepers who vow to share its beauty and wisdom.

Nadine Rachid Laure Touma
Co founder of Dar Onboz and Ahl elDar

Nadine’s favorite Zenobie Homeware item
is the Small Shell Ceramic Plate.

HOME – Noémie Naoum (for Zenobie)

I always thought home was a distinctive place. At first, I believed home was my parent’s house in the mountains. It was our fifth but this is the only one I still call home.

With time and distance, home became a homeland.

With more time and connections, I started going from a home to another. To feel home in my city of adoption, it started with friends who became family, a space feeling tiny and suffocating becoming warm and cozy, objects gathered from everywhere, collected at different moments reminding me of moments, people, a side of me I still am or lost on the way. Home is where I spend as much time in the kitchen as on my desk. Home can be any place with a chosen family and a capacity of rooting, so I can be nourished and live.

Noémie Naoum
Artist and Author

Noémie’s favorite Zenobie Homeware item
is the Mermaid Ceramic Plate.

Thanks to Waël and Rabih who shared pictures of their beautiful home.