Participatory Multimedia Installation · Barcelona, 2026

Centre Cultural La Bòbila · L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona

Unbroken Threads – The Tree of Belonging, installation view, Barcelona, 2026.

About the Project

Unbroken Threads – The Tree of Belonging is a participatory multimedia art project exploring the meanings of home, belonging, memory, and the future through the experiences of people who now live in a new environment while carrying with them memories, connections, and a sense of belonging to the places they come from.

At the heart of the project is a sculptural tree installation created from lightweight, textile, paper, and recycled materials. Its roots symbolize origin, memory, and what we carry from the past; the trunk represents the present and the life we continue to build; while the branches extend toward the future, hope, and the possibility of new growth.

A single red thread runs through the entire structure like a vital vein through the human body, connecting its different parts and symbolizing life force, continuity, and human connection.

Participation and the Meaning of Home

The participants became an active and essential part of the creation of the work.

Each person was invited to respond to the question:

“What does home mean to you?”

In their own language, they wrote a word, a sentence, a personal thought, or a quotation on a paper leaf. These handwritten contributions were then attached to the branches with red thread and became an integral part of the installation.

Through this process, the tree gradually became a collective structure carrying different languages, memories, emotions, and personal understandings of home.

Voices Within the Installation

As part of the project, I recorded a series of interviews with six participants, focusing on home, memory, everyday life in Barcelona, belonging, and the future.

The interviews were edited into a short video work that became an integral part of the installation. During the final presentation, the video was projected across or behind the sculptural tree, allowing the participants’ voices, faces, and words to merge with the physical structure of the work.

Through this combination of installation, text, image, and sound, the tree became more than a sculptural object: it became a space where individual experiences could be seen, heard, and shared.

Watch the video

Reflection

The project aimed to create, through a shared artistic process, a space in which participants could express their own experiences of home, belonging, change, and life between different places and cultures.

Through their words, stories, and video testimonies, the project seeks to bring different ways of building a sense of home and belonging in a new environment closer to the audience, while encouraging understanding, empathy, and human connection.

For me, Unbroken Threads – The Tree of Belonging became above all a process of listening, encounter, and trust. The participants’ openness and willingness to share parts of their lives gave the work its deepest meaning.

The installation ultimately became a meeting point between past and present, personal memory and collective experience, physical material and human voice.

Project Documentation

Individual voices and memories are carried through the hanging paper leaves.

Exhibition Poster

Project Credits

Concept and artistic direction
Nelisa Nela Baždar

Artist
Nelisa Nela Baždar

With the essential support and collaboration of
Etel Borges Reis

Video editing
Senad Pepić

Project participants
Adnane D. · Ahmed Yafou Fidaoui · Mbarka · Ahmed Al Helou · Youness · Alehandra

Community support and collaboration
Ahmed Yafou · Associació Cultural Mediterrània de L’Hospitalet

Venue

Presented at
Centre Cultural La Bòbila
L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Barcelona, Spain, 2026.

Partners and Support

Project Partners

With the support of