
Dates between 31 May – 22 Jun 2025
Moomin 80: What Will We Do Without Exile?
Basel Zaraa
Explore a lush world within a refugee tent, through this immersive, multi-sensory installation.
No unaccompanied under 13s
- Wheelchair user access
What Will We Do Without Exile? is an immersive, multi-sensory installation that creates a lush world within a refugee tent, inviting audiences to imagine life beyond occupation.
About the exhibition
While generations of Palestinian bodies have been forced into tents, their imaginations have never stopped reaching for liberation. What Will We Do Without Exile? pays tribute to imagination as resistance, as it celebrates the natural and cultural richness of Palestine, past, present and future. Through sight, touch, sound and stories, audience members are transported to a reality where the land and its people are finally free.
What Will We Do Without Exile? honours the struggle and sacrifice of colonised people, and imagines a world where they have not only won their liberation, but where their resilience and ingenuity are recognised as invaluable examples for humanity in crisis.
About the artist
Basel Zaraa is a UK-based Palestinian artist whose work uses the senses to bring audiences closer to experiences of exile and war, and who creates art in order to face, express and understand the trauma that his community lives with. His current installation, ‘What Will We Do Without Exile?’ is an immersive, multi-sensory installation that creates a lush world within a refugee tent, inviting audiences to imagine life beyond occupation and war.
Since 2022 he has also been touring ‘Dear Laila’, an intimate, a one-person-at-a-time installation centred around the recreation of a destroyed family home, which received the ZKB Audience Award 2023. His previous work includes ‘As Far As My Fingertips Take Me’, a collaboration with Tania El Khoury, which was awarded Outstanding Production at the Bessie Awards in 2019. His work has been shown at over 50 venues and festivals across five continents.
Refugee week X Moomin shop
Celebrate Refugee Week and show your support!
Get your official Refugee Week merch as well as wonderful products from the Anqa Collective, an online marketplace selling products from refugee-led businesses. Each purchase supports Refugee Week’s efforts in celebrating the creativity, contributions and resilience of refugees.
Moomin 80 is a celebration of the 80th anniversary of the first Moomins book, made possible by Moomin Characters.
With thanks to all the interview participants.
Partners
Credits
Artist
Collaborator
Sound Artist
Newspaper Illustrator and Designer
Featured voice
Plan your visit →
Related Events

3 Apr 2025 – 28 Feb 2026
YOU:MATTER
Marshmallow Laser Feast
Explore how we’re all connected at this spectacular immersive experience.

14 Jun 2025
Pop-Up Family Pride
Curious Arts
Celebrate creativity, individuality and self-expression with our family-friendly Pride celebration.

18 Jun 2025
Say It As It Is: Bowling Park
with Kirsty Taylor
Speak up and listen in – Kirsty Taylor hosts a special open mic night for Bradford 2025

19 – 22 Jun 2025
The Big Blue Bradford House
Stand and Be Counted
Join Stand & Be Counted, the UK’s first theatre company of sanctuary, to mark Refugee Week and celebrate Moomins 80

20-21 Jun 2025
Penguin
Hamzeh Al Hussien & Amy Golding
One man’s extraordinary journey from Syria to England. “Be proud. Be who you are. Be more Penguin.”

21 Jun 2025