leerlauf | Katarina Gotic

leerlauf


poetry book, 2024



leerlauf is a visual and a language collage. “the images of leerlauf are collaged from photographs of abandoned buildings in my hometown. many were taken during a walk with my parents. unlike me, they knew a factory where my grandma worked, a bakery that made soft, moon-shaped breads on sundays, and they knew there was Bosna – a shoe shop: they walked the world with our country on their feet. without the possibility of sharing the past, i see these sites as bricks, walls and faded signs hinting at another time. their insides haunt me: while hearing about a secret pool table in one of the basements, i look through a broken window / a missing wall / and find – not a story – but its scattered parts:  
 a wrapper from a bounty bar,
a blue peg,
a red heart,
a used condom
a yellow straydog, sleeping in the shade.
                                                           
what am i to do with them?

as i write, i remember a long-dead pigeon in a window of an old factory. i chose not to photograph the bird for the bird is a body, and a body that can’t escape shall not be captured. to many, this building is “TRIKO”. to me, it is “the-window-in-which-the-bird-had-died”.      
this is our difference.”

(from “leerlauf”)
© 2024 Katarina Gotic
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