I spent more than ten years photographing the life of various objects in an ordinary functionalist building in Bratislava, designed by the Jewish architect Alexander Skutecký (1883–1944). From the boiler room to the lightning rod and across ten apartments, I searched for original elements that have survived since the building’s construction in 1936. I observed how they had been altered by use, to what extent they were preserved, and what had been replaced. I arranged the same details from different landings and apartments vertically, according to the floors of the building, and explored the fittings of a one-room apartment and a two-room apartment through their entrance doors, kitchens, pantries, rooms, bathrooms, toilets, etc. The last two mosaics hint at how the house has been recently renovated and all the original features removed.
I took a detailed look at how the grand history typical of Central European countries in the twentieth and twenty-first century—Aryanization, the Second World War, nationalization, and restitution—has flowed through the building. This history is reflected in seemingly insignificant details and design that we are accustomed to encountering in our everyday lives.
I combine a strict, objective photographic approach, devoid of emotions (similar to the mathematical rules of architecture), with a personal one (similar to the subtle reshaping of space by its inhabitants). I lived in one of the apartments until the building’s renovation; several generations of my family grew up in it. In short, handwritten statements, I explain why certain photographs could not be taken. I acknowledge the circumstances and limits of reality that shape the appearance of objects, people's lives, and the result of artistic work.
The series consists of more than 600 photographs and was also created as a book in Czech language and as a dummy book in English version. In exhibition installations, I work with the building's original apartment doors.
