A Shadow in the Shape of a House
by Lena Holzer
portfolio shortlisted call 'Urbanautica Institute Awards 2023', 2023
Category: Memories and Traditions
‘A Shadow in the Shape of a House’ is the visual and textual outcome of a three-week-long self experiment, spent in total isolation in the uninhabited house right opposite of my childhood home. Secluded from any possible distraction through people or media, I began to see behind two different façades: the architectural one of the house I had before my eyes for many years while growing up in a small town in the mountains of Tyrol and my own social façade as a person, unwittingly formed by cultural and societal influences and continuously evolving, even more drastically so ever since I went to live abroad. As a peculiar and withdrawn neighbour to my own family, I explored the history of this particular house through the traces left behind by its former residents, as well as new personal conceptions and desires stemming from a state of autonomy and an unfamiliar perspective on a familiar context. The main work is a collection of photographs and texts - fragmented reflections on the reasons and findings of this experience.
also from Urbanautica Institute Awards 2023