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by Lena Simic |
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Home:
Dubrovnik – Od Greba žudioskih 4
Liverpool – 19 Livingston Ct
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“Home as ‘where one usually lives’becomes
theorised as the lived experience of locality. The immersion of
a self in a locality is not simply about inhabiting an already
constituted space (from which one could depart and remain the same).
Rather, the locality intrudes the senses: it defines what one smells,
hears, touches, remembers. The lived experience of being-at-home
hence involves the enveloping of subject in a space which is not
simply outside them: being at home suggests that the subject and
space leak into each other, inhabit each other.”
(Ahmed 2000:
89) |
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Sonja and I are creating an imaginary postcard of Liverpool
and Dubrovnik.
‘ Wish you were here’
Home – will this newly created postcard be my home, my imagination, my
reflection, my memory.
Can one create a representation of ‘home’?
At times I feel Liverpool is my ‘true’ home – but is that feeling
only because I have a home elsewhere… I never need to give in completely – I
am allowed to say “I feel like Liverpool is my home”. I have an alibi.
As for Dubrovnik… I left it at the age of 16. I love to come and go. Maybe
one day I would like to stay…
Dubrovnik carries its touristy penance, the memory
of its summer brightness all throughout the year. Dubrovnik breathes
with flocks of tourists that are dumped from boats… Dubrovnik
is overpopulated with flowery and striped hats. Dubrovnik smells
of sun lotion. Still, Dubrovnik is not your proper package tour
holiday destination – it is classier than that… It
makes residents of Dubrovnik live by the classy thoughts… by
Dubrovnik Republic history… by dialect… by Stradun… by
sea… by espressos, cappuccinos and cigarettes… by gossip.
The Town Café waiters behave as if they were exiled South
American dictators… and what a misfortune the life has brought
to them…
Liverpool with docks and Beatles and bad 80s
reputation and the new image as a culture city… Liverpool
as re-inventing itself. Liverpool with great social housing and
beautiful parks. Liverpool with its Scouse cheekiness and instant ‘foreign’ isolation.
Liverpool with slave trade shameful past and Tate and two cathedrals
and football. I hate Liverpool city centre… I hate shopping… I
hate Church Street – the Consumerist God. Liverpool is
so pretty… Liverpool away from its centre…Liverpool
as my new found home for the time being…
Through the archetypal (universal) figure of Mary Magdalene that is recognizable
in both Liverpool and Dubrovnik, I aim to juxtapose my two homes and offer the
audiences an encounter with the culture of ‘Other’. Magdalena, artist/performer,
brings a bit of Liverpool into Dubrovnik and vice versa. The staged intimate
encounter with Mary Magdalene supported by the accompanied audio-visual footage
creates a space between two cultures. The making of Magdalena into Mary Magdalene
is disclosed in the audio-visual footage. Magdalena, a performer, alludes to
herself as always in transit in between two places Dubrovnik and Liverpool.
09/08/2004
I am in Dubrovnik. I connected my laptop to the internet using my brother’s
configurations. Could internet connection on my laptop be my definition of
home? Is laptop it? Is internet it? This website? Seems too easy an answer…
20/08/2004
Branka, my auntie, who is a tour guide has promised to take me and Gary around
town. We will join the group of tourists and learn about Dubrovnik history.
She mentioned she could find some information in reference to Dubrovnik-Liverpool
connection. |
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“…nego, sinoc sam nesto eksperimentirala
sa fotkama koje sam nasla na webu,
Sto se tice gradova Li i Du, oba su na obali, e pa znas kako zgrade imaju odsjaj
u vodi na fotkama? Tako bi mi mogli napraviti kao da se Li oslikva u vodi ali
ne kao Li nego kao Du!
i obratno i onda bi bilo OK s obje strane... Ne bi bilo prioriteta... ali tada
bi to mogla biti samo razglednica samo za sebe...
ne znam to sa ocrtavanjem odraza drugog grada
mi se cini Ok...
S.” – email from Sonja dated
21/07/2004
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