In my thoughts I’m returning back to three cities, in which time turns from the abstraction to the reality.
Venice is the capital of not existing yet republic, going into the sea. This is the city-reflection, where things keep only visibility, but not the essence. Completeness of the gone life is just a play of imagination. Mundus alter- the other world.
Knossos, the city at Crete island, swept away by tsunami and then burnt down four thousand years ago. But not the ruins lead to the past, it comes indirectly through the restoration. The city-palace was rebuilt anew, on the basis of found stones and artifacts, proceeding from “modern” ideas. The lost reality of the past is recreated by analogy with today’s world.
St. Petersburg is my native city, my present. The city, which was built by the willful ruler in the swamp, despite all natural obstacles, and not only from the stone. His materials were also the ever-renewing sky, water and air. Its direct lines contain hidden energy.
Time flows in these cities smoothly. The present slowly disappears and becomes the past, which again manifests itself and continues to live in the present.