Born in Beirut to a Syrian mother and a Lebanese father, Mounira Al Solh grew up in Lebanon but took refuge in Syria during the
Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990). Eventually the artist returned to Beirut, where she was living during the outbreak of the Syrian
War in 2012 and the influx of refugees to the city. Encountering those who fled the war, Al Solh recalled her own period of displacement
and began a series of drawings documenting her conversations with the new refugees. In some cases, as here, she embroidered her drawings and snippets of the person’s story onto textiles. In this work, a mother and daughter stand side-by-side, and the surrounding text reads, “Me and my daughter escaped in a weird way/The men at the checkpoint were choosing between us,” and “At weddings, we wear the same dresses/Believe me, they don’t know who is the mother and who is the daughter.” Al Solh now divides her time between the Netherlands and Lebanon.
