Dear Mother, Dear Daughter

‘Dear Mother, Dear Daughter’ explores the silence between mothers and daughters, offering an alternative mode of communication for those unable to speak without conflict. At its centre is a low table where two women sit face-to-face and respond in writing to a single question engraved in the wood: ‘In your relationship, what would you like to see change?’ Letters are written, exchanged, read, and placed in an urn. There is no speech, only presence. The designer then transforms the letters into large, hand-quilted textile flags.
The installation draws on epistolary exchange — writing as a space for introspection and emotional safety — as a therapeutic method.

Emerging from Victoire Donneger’s personal experience of estrangement and reconciliation with her mother, the project honours the difficulty and necessity of intergenerational dialogue. As letters and quilts accumulate, the space becomes a collective memory, a landscape of repair, and a shared archive of women’s voices across generations.