For the London Festival of Architecture (LFA) 2026, The Palestine Collective is organising a two-day exhibition on cultural belonging, in collaboration with the P21 Gallery.
Homeland Lost is an exhibition of an historic series of Palestinian photographs by award-winning documentary photographer Alan Gignoux. Homeland Lost juxtaposes portraits of Palestinian refugees displaced in 1948 and their descendants, shown alongside images of their former homes and villages inside Israel. Taken between 2004 and 2005, Homeland Lost is a poignant and sobering reminder of the human toll of an ongoing conflict which has displaced an estimated 8 million Palestinians and their descendants since 1948.
For the London Festival of Architecture 2026, the Palestine Collective seeks to inaugurate its exhibition with a speaking event and panel discussion on the evening of June 26, 2026. Titled ‘Belonging through Practice’, this programme seeks to foreground architectural and artistic practices that engage with questions of Arab diaspora, displacement, and the reconstruction of identity across geographies.
In addition to the London Festival of Architecture 2026 lecture series, participants will also be invited to join hands-on session in traditional Palestinian tatreez embroidery. By bridging scholarship, craft, and performance, our event programme establishes inclusive spaces for learning, dialogue, and collective cultural expression.
In addition to the London Festival of Architecture 2026 lecture series, participants will also be invited to join hands-on session in Arabic calligraphy. By bridging scholarship, craft, and performance, our event programme establishes inclusive spaces for learning, dialogue, and collective cultural expression.
The opening night at the beginning of the exhibition "Homeland Lost". Photographer Alan Gignoux and Curator Jenny Christensson will each make a short opening speech. We would include refreshments.
SPEAKERS:
Alan Gignoux, Photographer, Founder of Gignouxphotos
Jenny Christensson, Curator, Independent
A solo performance of the play by Khawla Ibraheem in cooperation with Schauspielhaus Wien, co-produced by BOW Production.
The starting point is the military practice known as “roof knocking”—a warning strike that gives civilians only a few minutes to leave their homes. From this reality, the piece develops an intimate portrait of daily life under constant threat.
‘A place is not only a geographical area; it's also a state of mind. And trees are not just trees, they are the ribs of childhood.’
Lament for a lost land, Journal of an Ordinary Grief. Mahmoud Darwish
What makes a homeland and what does it mean to leave and lose it?
You are invited to explore Alan Gignoux’s photography exhibition Homeland Lost at P21 Gallery and attend a presentation by Ahmad al-Bazz of his recently published book, The Erasure of Palestine. The presentation will be followed by an in-conversation between the two photographers, moderated by Milena.
This panel event brings together the main people who contributed to the realisation of the Homeland Lost documentary project. The panel includes photographer Alan Gignoux; his photography assistant for the project, Alexander Atwater; Safwat Alkahlout, journalist and Alan’s fixer in the Gaza Strip; Saad Halawani, Alans contact at the British Council in East Jerusalem, who sponsored the project; and Master Printer Robin Bell, who created the foundations for the analogue film archive and printed Alan’s images for the exhibition. The panel discussion will be moderated by Jenny Christensson, w
