Documentary project by Syrian photographer Hasan Belal, created during his residency at Villa Ruffieux in Sierre as part of the SMART program, I Feel Longing follows the lives of migrants from Ukraine, Syria, and Afghanistan living in Switzerland. Through photography, the project explores nostalgia, displacement, and the emotional complexity of migration feelings the artist personally relates to through his own experience far from Syria for the first time.

While longing for home, family, memories, and belonging forms the emotional core of the work, Belal also documents the everyday realities of integration into Swiss society: work, language classes, friendships, birthdays, and ordinary routines. The photographs move between documentary and artistic expression, balancing hope with absence, intimacy with uncertainty.

Arriving in Switzerland without speaking the language, Belal initially saw communication as his greatest obstacle. Yet after months spent with the people he photographed, he discovered that honesty and emotional openness could transcend linguistic and cultural barriers. The resulting images reveal moments of vulnerability and trust, where the subjects expose parts of themselves before the camera with striking sincerity.

Family gatherings and celebratory group portraits usually symbols of joy instead carry traces of loss and separation. The images evoke absence, homesickness, and the pain of loved ones left behind. For Belal, whose previous work focused on post-war documentary narratives, I Feel Longing marks a deeply personal turning point where his own emotions become inseparable from the project itself. The project has been exhibited across different regions of Switzerland, as well as in Beirut at Dar Al-Musawer for Arts and Culture.