To get to the first meeting with the activists and inhabitants of Levadia at Nerotrivi, we took the road along the Erkyna river. My attention was drawn to the empty houses with no front walls. They invited me inside without hiding anything.
From the other side of the road, they were perfect imitations of ordinary houses. With windows, doors, a balcony and a house number. No sign of their shameless denudation.
I was thinking about the light freely entering the interior, like in Hopper’s 1963 painting Sun in an Empty Room. I wondered who lived in these houses? When were they abandoned? I used to paint on such walls. I used to seed homeliness in similar places.
Quite unconsciously I started taking photos of them, without any idea what for. I juxtaposed them with the freshly renovated terraces close by, with tables and chairs placed as if in testimony of them being inhabited.
I would like to paint a mural in one of these houses. Slowly, like I usually work. First, I would sweep the floors and clean the walls of cobwebs. I would examine the cavities in the wall. I would place the first stencil. I would check if it suits the wall. I would make mistakes and, in time, I would fix them.
In April, the sun will be brighter and the days longer. Maybe someone will visit me while I work. I hope they will share their stories and sit for a while. We will inhabit this empty space together and we will listen to the sound of the flowing river - not through the window.
- Iwona Zając (Poland)