NPR

See Dioramas Of Refugee Homes, Each Re-Created In An Old-Fashioned Suitcase

The miniatures, each displayed in a piece of luggage, capture telling details — a blooming plant in a flowerpot, a kid's tricycle covered in dust, holes punched by bombs.
A missile struck the Badr family home in Iraq in 2006.

At first glance, it seems like a charming exhibition: Ten old-fashioned suitcases, with a miniature diorama in each. The models, with their meticulously detailed furnishings, remind you of dollhouses.

Then you spot snaking tangles of exposed wires, rubble-strewn streets and blasted chandeliers. A child's tricycle is gritty, covered in dust.

It's only after you read the wall texts and listen to the accompanying audio that you realize what's going on. These small sculpted dioramas represent the homes left behind, often in a state of destruction and disarray, by refugees and immigrants who fled their native countries.

Artist and architect and created the project to humanize the lives and stories of refugees, they say. The stories and homes could belong

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