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| Pavlina Verouki Midhat Bashat Street Damascus, Syria, 2007 “I just bought a notepad from a little shop in Damascus! And a pen! I will right like they write here! BACKWARDS!” I am writing in my new notebook. I am at the offices of a ministry, in the garden with the small fountains and incredibly elaborate Eastern mosaics. Backwards? What does backwards mean? Who writes backwards? Do they or I? The people here seem distressed... Like they are barely getting by... A man at the ministry sees me sitting alone and comes outside with a smile and a cup of tea. He soon brings me a chair. I speak with my colleagues... there is so much poverty all around! Poverty? What poverty? I continue down Midhat Bashat Street. It is a long street with all sorts of little shops... Colours, fragrances, buses, taxis, people, voices. The gentleman with the sweets, perfumes, fabrics, spices, glass ornaments, clothes, stationery, funeral home... I go over to a metal roof. Noise and traffic at their peak! I take out my video camera. A child follows me whispering something... he comes closer... I understand what he is saying: “Fuck you, get out of here!” It comes to mind that fools and children speak the truth... maybe not. I am a foreigner here… but why do I feel so at home? I have come to work... to try and create a work about this city, on this street. Within ten days. What should I say? What should I talk about? The only conclusion that I can draw is that I cannot draw a conclusion, especially in such a short period of time because nothing is clear… the boundaries are constantly moving. They remind me of the clear lines that are formed on the street at the entrance and exit of the metal roof, which are constantly moving… I calm down and concentrate, watching how nature creates its own restless boundaries... slowly and discreetly amidst the noise of the street... *The work was created in the framework of the project “Here as the centre of the world”. Organisation: Dutch Art Institute, Netherlands. Pavlina Verouki  Download CV |  Following the Light, 2006 |
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