“Almost one year ago, last June, I was driving through Gyumri and because of wrong turn I was paying more attention on the road, in search of the right way. I noticed those two huge twin buildings one in front of another. From the first sight it was obvious for me that they are not inhabited because of all the missing windows and roof, and whole condition of the buildings. But what caught my attention was the laundry hanged on the second floor above the entry in the half-round construction of the building with arches. This second floor actually serves for them as a kind of “balcony.” That first day I just walked to the buildings and made sure that people are living there. A few days later, I went there again and met people from two families, they were sitting outside of the buildings just on the stairs. I talked to them for a while, but didn’t enter the building. Almost a year I kept thinking of them but because of being absent from the country I didn’t have chance to visit them again.

In March, I spent nine days in Gyumri working on this story, each day meeting the families and spending all the days with them in those buildings.”