The Suitcase

The Suitcase is an innovative and original student led art project which explores the concepts of loss and belonging through the eyes of sanctuary seekers from Ukraine, Afghanistan, Syria, Türkiye and Egypt.

The Suitcase exhibition ran from 3-10 March 2023 . Visitors were invited to connect with six stories of displacement through five suitcases located on plinths around the campus. Each suitcase told the story of a sanctuary seeker through the objects they had to leave behind, alongside those precious things that could be saved, like a small bag of soil from Afghanistan – one sanctuary seeker’s tangible connection to a lost homeland.

Each suitcase displayed a QR code which visitors were invited to use to access short films, by Red 7 Productions, which detailed the sanctuary seekers’ lived experiences, their journeys to Norwich, and the emotive reasons for the objects they chose to share.

The Suitcase is the brainchild of Anastasiia Petrenko (Ana), a Ukrainian student studying MA International Development at UEA. Ana is one of the 2022-23 cohort of Sanctuary Scholars, who received a scholarship as part of UEA’s commitment to helping reduce the barriers to participation in higher education faced by those seeking sanctuary in the UK. The Suitcase was developed alongside other Sanctuary Scholars from a range of other countries, including Afghanistan, Syria, Egypt and Türkiye.

Please note, the Suitcase films below may be traumatising to some audiences.