Alice no longer lives here
I remembered a film I saw a long time ago, “Alice in the cities” (dir. Wim Wenders 1974), a very beautiful black and white film about a little Alice’s journey through Germany in search of the house where her grandmother lives. The photojournalist who accompanies her is also looking for something somewhere. It was beautiful and sad, because beautiful things come to an end.
This road movie story could also have touched the house in the neighbouring courtyard in Užupis, Malūnų-8. People were born, grew up, loved, rejoiced, suffered, grew old and no longer live here. The walls of the house remain as empty shells, still spreading the memories of a past life. Houses are like living bodies, a mother’s womb, where one must inevitably live for a while before leaving. The bodies of the house, mutilated by daily use, have a foundation – legs; a basement – a basement, a womb; a door – a mouth; windows – eyes; a balcony – a nose; a roof with a chimney – a head. You don’t have to be an explorer to see the marks left by the people who lived here, the common and private spaces, the colours they liked, the comfort and warmth installations.
Now there are many holes, planes and overlapping spaces that deny that a wall has to end with a floor or a ceiling. When they are gone, there is a raging self-expression of space, constantly sustained by rain and wind erosion. The grass and the trees growing on the walls return to the former human rooms as a kind of reclaiming of what culture had conquered.
The abandoned houses have a distinctive libidinous beauty that attracts artists and other lovers of romance, who are eager to immortalise their temporary stay here. The distinctive atmosphere of the ruins evokes memories of childhood, the desire to return to the house and other impossible desires. The lurking holes in the walls and cellars invite us to come back to them, as if offering us a trip down memory lane, a return to the beginning.
But what is Alice here for? It is impossible to return to a place where there is no home, or where there are no longer those who could return. Home is not some used and discarded object: it is too big for that. Alice is gone too, because she no longer lives here. So the house is falling into disrepair until the builders come and put everything in order.
Author
20o4
