Tears streamed down south Lebanon resident Fatima Hajj Ali's face as she stared at a host of keys hanging like wind chimes from the ceiling of a Beirut museum – each one symbolizing a home, like her own, destroyed by Israel.
"We were supposed to go home and open the door with the key, but there is no door anymore," the 23-year-old said.
The exhibition "Hkeeli ya Jnoub," or "Tell me, O South," features pictures and videos preserving the memory of southern Lebanon at the capital's Beit Beirut museum.
Walking through, Hajj Ali reminisced about her home in Nabatieh al-Fawqa, which she was only able to visit once after an April truce that ultimately failed to stop the fighting.
"Half the house collapsed and half remained," she told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
"I long for sunset and to hear the call to prayer in our garden while I drink my coffee," said the psychologist, adding that Beirut had "beautiful" places, but "they are not home."
One of the projects on display is "Keys Without Homes," which comprises videos of three southerners who kept the keys to their houses, even though they no longer exist.
The artist, 36-year-old Adeeb Farhat, himself from the south, said the idea came to him during the previous war in 2024, when he feared losing his own home.
"I was constantly haunted by the question: What will happen to my house? Will it be bombed?" he said.
There is a longstanding tradition among Palestinians of keeping the keys of homes they lost during the Nakba – or "catastrophe" in Arabic – which saw the flight and expulsion of an estimated 760,000 Palestinians during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation.
Within the exhibition halls, a bedroom, living room and kitchen – complete with a glass jug, coffee pot and spice containers – recreate details of daily life in the homes of southern Lebanese residents.
The exhibition also includes an old photograph of the coastal city of Tyre, a black-and-white video of Nabatieh and notebooks in which visitors wrote down their memories of the south.
In another work called "What Remains," Sama Beydoun, 29 and living in Paris, showed pictures of her grandfather's now-destroyed home in Bint Jbeil, near the border with Israel, which she last saw in 2025.
However, a technical glitch resulted in most of the images appearing blurry, making them look like a "dream," Beydoun said.
"I remember how many people this house brought together, how my family grew up there, how many generations it witnessed and how life changed, while some things remained constant," like the weekly Sunday gatherings, she said.
"Life was very simple, but it was beautiful."
