top of page

1. Factory

the story of a building as a mirror and an interlocutor of a maturing community

As one part of the project, I first took a series of portraits of the building itself. In our evolving ways of seeing this building and our relationship with it I saw a metaphor of the evolution and maturing of the community itself. First there was a romantic infatuation at the sight of a beautiful “abandoned” building. We began to clean and repair it, feeling inspired by a mission to revive. Then we encountered the walls – the walls that preserved memories of the people who came there as school children and worked there when the school building was turned into a textile factory. Facing the walls, we began to question who we were and why we got to be the stewards of this place while the people of the community whose memories it preserved were banished from it after the building was transformed from a public space to “private property” in the 1990s and sold. What once had been a seductive sight of beautiful desolation became a testimony of personal loss of people whom we were beginning to know better. “Locals” acquired faces, names, and stories. The factory could no longer be simply “our home.” And then came the roof – the ultimate symbol of security and home. The old roof of the building was deteriorating, and the top floor of the building was flooded after every rain. The attempt to save the roof brought a new wave of inspiration. Some worked tirelessly on the attic, patching the roof and reinforcing the beams. Others tried to raise funds for repairs. The water kept seeping in, however, producing rifts and sobering realizations. If we raise money for the repairs, how can we guarantee that we will not be asked to leave the building in a year or two to be replaced by a more profitable enterprise? Are we really “stewards”? Is this really our home? Are we not being simply used by our landlord? Why give our labor and our love to this place? The story of love turned into one of disenchantment, and disenchantment sparked self-search. Who are we? Can Abastan exist without its mission to restore and reflect on the past through the factory building?

In cooperation with:

Абастан_edited.png

Project Gallery

bottom of page