The summer I spent at the Academy of Arts building was lonely and hot. Like most institutions in the holiday season, the Werner Düttmann building was almost empty and unusually quiet. There is a special beauty in places that suddenly become deserted. I love this post-apocalyptic atmosphere. I can imagine that I am alone in the world. It is both intimidating and consoling at the same time. The building without people showed its intimate, bare side. Salons full of empty chairs, a kitchen in which nobody prepares food and drinks, a garden in which chatting guests gathered with glasses of wine are no longer to be heard. The powerful feeling of a former human presence was everywhere, together with the unusual and deep quietness.

I behaved as if the Academy building was my private villa and I was an aged, lonely weirdo from whom everyone had escaped. I walked around in my pajamas and robe like some kind of old ghost. The building opened itself up to me. For the first time in my life, I really paid attention to where I was. The boundary between inside and outside was deceptive and unstable. Private and public mixed, nature and art were fused. The stone dared me to walk on it barefoot and there was something seductively impropriate about it. Public space became my private beach. Wood, brick and grass interrupted concrete and glass. I began to notice the regular geometric patterns; I had fun watching the shadows and capturing unusual shapes and colors.

This series of photos is a game, but also something of a declaration of love to a building in which I spent a nice, lonely summer. Even though the building was full of people when I came back again in spring, I felt that we had shared a certain intimacy and had a brief, common past that has bound us permanently.

Ljeto koje sam provela u zgradi Akademije Umjetnosti bilo je usamljeno i vrelo. Kao i većina institucija u sezoni odmora, i zgrada Wernera Düttmanna bila je skoro prazna i neobično tiha. Postoji neka posebna ljepota u mjestima koja iznenada opuste. Volim tu postapokaliptičnu atmosferu. Mogu da zamišljam da sam sama na svijetu. To je u isto vrijeme i zastrašujće i utješno. Zgrada se bez ljudi pokazuje u intimnom, ogoljenom izdanju. Saloni sa praznim stolicama na kojima niko ne sjedi, kuhinja u kojoj niko ne priprema hranu i pića, vrt u kojem se navečer ne čuje žamor gostiju okupljenih uz čašu vina. Posvuda snažan osjećaj nekadašnjeg ljudskog prisustva i neobični tajac.

Ponašala sam se kao da je zgrada Akademije moja privatna vila, a ja ostarjela čudakinja od koje su svi pobjegli. Hodala sam okolo u pidžami i kućnom ogrtaču kao kakva utvara.

Zgrada mi se otvarala. Prvi put u životu sam obraćala pažnju na prostor u kojem boravim. Granica između unutrašnjosti i spoljašnjosti bila je varljiva i nestalna. Miješalo se privatno i javno, priroda i umjetnost su se nadopunjavali. Kamen je mamio da po njemu hodam bosa, bilo je u tome neke zavodljive nepriličnosti. Javni prostor postajao je moja privatna plaža. Drvo, cigla i trava smjenjivali su se sa betonom i staklom. Počela sam uočavati pravilne geometrijske obrasce, zabavljati se posmatrajući sjene, loveći neobične oblike i boje.

Ova serija fotografija je igra, a pomalo i ljubavna izjava zgradi u kojoj sam provela jedno lijepo samotno ljeto. Čak i kada sam se u nju vratila narednog proljeća i zatekla je punu ljudi, osjećala sam da smo nas dvije podijelile neku intimu i da imamo malu zajedničku prošlost koja nas trajno vezuje.