A lo largo de los años, generamos vínculos sentimentales con lugares y cosas. Aunque no representen permanencia, como seres humanos solemos asociar memorias con lugares, por que es en donde nuestros sentimientos se tornan tangibles.  Considere este parque como ´´lugar´´ por que es lo que me viene a la memoria cuando pienso en infancia, infancia para mi representa, aprendizaje, crecimiento, niñez, y, sobre todo, diversión. Con el paso del tiempo olvidamos lo importante que esta última, lo importante que es reír, disfrutar, compartir. Que, a final de cuentas, es lo que nos hace sentir vivos, que estamos aquí. En ese lugar tengo recuerdos en los que solía compartir mi tiempo con los vecinos, por que representaba para nosotros un punto de encuentro, de convivencia, de compartir e interactuar unos con los otros.

The cabinets of the hallway are filled with old photographs. 

Memories flood you each time you pass.

One morning, I noticed how the sunlight was focused on a particular frame.

The one with me and my sister as kids outside our old home, I'm wearing a pink dress and she is in her jean suit. 

I've never spoken about her with love, words have always been hard to articulate.

The past seems to haunt me often. 

But the sunlight was so sweet that day, her face bright with a smile.
It reminded me of the smiles we used to share instead of tears, the screams of laughter instead of anger. 

I could see her again & I was reminded that the darkness of the past will always haunt you unless you shed light on it.

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Winner of the fourth prize of the A-Place Mapping contest "Share your experiences of domestic places" 2022

I try to do my laundry at the end of every week.

When the morning sun is touching my balcony doors, I feel motivated to do it early in the day, so the clothes and linen can get a good amount of fresh sun rays.

I can see people around putting their fresh laundry in a rooftops of apartment buildings. Probably because the awnings and the greenery on their balconies are shading them too much. Big bed linens are dancing between antennas and sun panels where they are becoming a standard part of window views.  

In our balcony we don’t have an awning because our landlord is too penny-pinching, so my washings always have an opportunity to be touched by the sun, even if I leave them inside. The shadows of clothes can play freely, without interruptions by branches of greenery.

Sometimes I’m too indolent to organize washing schedule with other room-mates and I’m postponing it until I’m out of clothes to wear. In the meantime, my laundry stand is staying open for more days as it is necessary. I like the feeling of having my clothes hanging around, where they are co-living with my other small pieces. Together they are presenting my characteristics in personal, weekly changing pop-up exhibitions.

The process of doing the laundry feels like the process of communicating with neighbours. In the mornings I can hear their washing machine. I’m guessing that they are an older generation because they wake up so early, maybe they are having a siesta in the afternoon. We are talking through smells of our washed clothes being merged into each other.

I’ve done more than 50 laundries in this place, and I have around 5 of them left. The practice of doing the laundry is moving with me and through it, I become a part of a surroundings. It is hard to define my home, but wherever I’m doing my laundry, I feel like I’m able to describe it as my domestic place. 

Winner of the second prize of the A-Place Mapping contest "Share your experiences of domestic places" 2022

Every day, when I open the window, I see a picture of my hometown in Brazil. 
During the gray winter days in Belgium, I look at this photo and I say to myself "today might be gray, but I carry that sun inside me everywhere."

Winner of the fourth prize of the A-Place Mapping contest "Share your experiences of domestic places" 2022

When COVID hit, I had to move from where I lived since I couldn't afford rent anymore, so after staying at this new place I needed to discover the new area, the small Mediterranean in me was always looking for a raise of sunlight in something that would remind me of home, in this ghostlike town that the area became due to the pandemic and there it was! Warm, colorful and orange!

Winner of the first prize of the A-Place Mapping contest "Share your experience of places" 2021