Alexandra Janowski
25/09/17
Floral Spaces
I interviewed Elena at her apartment in Saint-Ouen, in the department of Seine Saint Denis, right outside the Paris walls. Elena lives in a “quartier” that is distinctively different from mine. Her building is located on a small street with colorful low rises. These are not haussemannien buildings, but an other Paris: The Paris of black and white movies, the Paris of Edith Piaf, the Paris “populaire”.
Elena’s apartment building is small and, as you make your way in, the feeling of coziness and tranquility overwhelms you. It is simply enchanting. On the other side of the main green door, there is a small garden with potted plants and a stone pathway leading to a blue wooden staircase, followed by another. Her apartment is up the stairs. Elena is sharing with three other roommates. This is a place for artists, full of glimpses of their individual personalities, which in the end, form a strange unity expressing itself with movie posters, old typewriters, cameras and books. Her favorite location on Earth, she says, is her apartment. She feels it is something she earned and fought for after her years of lonely struggle. In this apartment she sees the sacrifices that she has made when she decided to leave her family. She feels it is a representation of her accomplishments, an expression of freedom, a testimony of her hard work and determination over years. Her home is a place where she feels comfortable and safe. She loves to cook with her roommates, sharing an experience with others and generally enjoys the company of like-minded people. The bathrooms are colorful and disorganized, and the kitchen is old and open to the rest of the space, as if it were a home of a small artistic family. She does not choose her friends based on her own interests, as what matters to her is the impact that these people will have, being part of her life.
She speaks with an open mind and sounds as if her view on life is that it is full of opportunities and positive expectations. Elena owns very few objects because she has not been in a stable home for a while now, but she brought objects that are truly important to her.
Elena loves her cameras. Among other things, she wants to become a photographer. She has all kinds of cameras; some of which are vintage, which contributes to the décor and lifestyle that the entire apartment demonstrates. She speaks about her love for a Swedish photographer, Lina Scheynius, Elena describes her provocative but beautiful photographs of the daily rituals and themes in relationships. She tends to love female photographers for their very soft and unique feminine styles as well as the everyday depictions of a woman’s life. She loves flowers and has a collection of floral printed clothes, sheets and other materials. She bought her favorite floral shirt at a yard sale, from a hippie woman who was selling her used treasures, almost like she loves the charm, as if wearing vintage things gives these pieces of clothing a second life.
I probed Elena’s imagination, where she would want to live if she were part of a different universe. She replied that if she were to live in a world of her choice, she would live in the stories of Murakami, a Japanese author who she loves to read for his creative imagination, his stories with a touch of abnormality, for example, a world with “two moons” in the sky. She feels different reading his books, loses herself in his strange stories as if reading them was a key to something she knows is there but hasn’t quite been discovered.
Her other hobbies include climbing which she was fond of in Colorado, and salsa dancing as well. She seems be very attached to these, and in an instant, I learn that both her climbing shoes and her bedazzled salsa shoes came with her to Paris. She believes that anyone has the capability of doing what they want and achieve success as long as passion is there. She associates her music with positive memories of growing up. Elena has a specific taste in music. Her favorite is bluegrass because it reminds her of home and the life she left behind.
