"The ladder"
The in-situ sculpture was created and placed in front of the fence of the old Alatini factory in Thessaloniki Greece, which remains abandoned. It is a model of a large-scale ladder that expresses all the different phases of the factory and how the creator perceived them from her childhood to the present day.
A story about the ladder
Tall chimneys full of smoke, unstoppable movement, an irresistible smell.
A fire will break out again and again.
The next moment, when you are a child, you sneak inside, run and search.
You make up your own stories about that huge building.
You are kicked out but you sneak inside, again. It is your own hiding place.
But this huge building is getting smaller and smaller in your eyes.
The colors you once painted the walls,
Tall chimneys full of smoke, unstoppable movement, an irresistible smell.
A fire will break out again and again.
The next moment, when you are a child, you sneak inside, run and search.
You make up your own stories about that huge building.
You are kicked out but you sneak inside, again. It is your own hiding place.
But this huge building is getting smaller and smaller in your eyes.
The colors you once painted the walls,
are starting to fade and you don't have anything to look inside.
You move away and the building is gone too.
From a distance, it no longer looks like your familiar hiding place.
You hear stories about footprints, holes and ruins.
Now and then you might climb inside again.
The stories are getting darker and darker.
The last thing they whisper to you is so dark
that it won't let you climb inside never again.
Now, you are wondering, if you and everyone else,
found what you were looking for at the empty floors of the huge building.
Maybe the next time you will go there you won't have to climb the fence.
The ladder will be waiting there, to remind you.
The ladder is there for all the young and old children who want to climb inside, looking for something. It is there for those who are still inside and may want to come out one day.
You move away and the building is gone too.
From a distance, it no longer looks like your familiar hiding place.
You hear stories about footprints, holes and ruins.
Now and then you might climb inside again.
The stories are getting darker and darker.
The last thing they whisper to you is so dark
that it won't let you climb inside never again.
Now, you are wondering, if you and everyone else,
found what you were looking for at the empty floors of the huge building.
Maybe the next time you will go there you won't have to climb the fence.
The ladder will be waiting there, to remind you.
The ladder is there for all the young and old children who want to climb inside, looking for something. It is there for those who are still inside and may want to come out one day.
