This catalogue essay accompanies Mounira Al Solh's exhibition Yalla Tnam, Yalla at Bombon Projects, Barcelona (2026). Taking its title from a lullaby known across Lebanon and Syria, the essay reads Al Solh's practice through transliteration, vernacular and pidgin as forms of survival rather than loss. It centres on the collaborative installation Nami Nami Noooom, Yalla Tnaaam, in which women in Lebanon and the Netherlands cut and embroidered their nightclothes while sharing stories of war, fear and motherhood. Turning to her cut-out paintings and drawings, the essay proposes storying as a form of custody, holding micro-histories against their flattening into aggregate, statistic and the news cycle.

Reference
Kholeif, O. (2026) 'Yalla Tnam, Yalla', in Mounira Al Solh: Yalla Tnam, Yalla. Barcelona: Bombon Projects. Exhibition catalogue.