Filmed by Armeghan Taheri, Neta Liraz and Adi Liraz
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This photograph was taken a couple of years before my grandmother left my grandfather. Everyone in the photograph looks a bit concerned, not only my grandmother and my great grandmother but also my mother and my uncle. It is like the stillness before the personal storm and after the collective storm. Both storms and traumas are interwoven within each other.
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This sea of trauma, has remained the sea of trauma also today.
I miss it. This longing extends my own body, it goes beyond it and back in time.
This sea in which so many people have lost their lives. Either by escaping their homes in order to survive, or by being deported from their homes in order to be exterminated.
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This sea carries here also my family’s story. When I dip inside it I can forget and remember at the same time. I can find peace but feel the loss at the same time.
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When I look at my grandmother in this photograph, I see how I physically cary her body with my own body. I can spot the source for my back aches. I can spot the pregnant belly which is not anymore pregnant. I can spot the cheekbones which make us look arrogant when we just feel insecure.
Hand made scissors from Ioannina, Greece. Hand made table cloth by my great- grandmother, Hiette Moissis (formerly Levis)
Golden silk from Ioannina, which is very typical and often seen in local embroideries in Epirus. Hand made table cloth by my great- grandmother, Hiette Moissis (formerly Levis)
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I miss her. I miss home.
Hand made table cloth by my great- grandmother, Hiette Moissis (formerly Levis)