What would you take
with you?

This project is a growing archive of objects carried in moments of displacement. Each entry begins with a simple question: what is the one thing you take when everything else is left behind? Through stories, audio recordings, and notes, the archive traces how everyday objects hold memory, identity, and continuity across places. It is not a collection of things, but of choices. What people decide to carry reveals what cannot be left behind.

The project began in 2022, following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when design researcher Nastasia Fomina started observing what people brought with them as they arrived in new places with almost nothing, and how, over time, these objects gained new meanings as lives were rebuilt. While rooted in this context, the archive extends to other experiences of displacement, drawing connections through shared objects and stories across different places and times. The project is developed as part of ongoing research in design and displacement.