Cvernovka Creative Center | The Final Days | Bratislava

Artist Evelyn Bencicova is the Edge of Humanity Magazine contributor of this photo essay. From the ‘Taste of Leaving’ project. To see Natalia’s body of work, click on any photograph.

My project “Taste of leaving” is a personal one. It displays Cvernovka, a former sewing factory in the center of Bratislava which changed into a creative center. This industrial building was a working and living space for me as well as for many others. We grew up there, or grew older, came upon ideas and made them a reality. It was a space for collective creativity and individual transformation. After years of uncertain future Cvernovka is closing down.

With just one month left to move out I decided to photographed our favorite spots but also hidden spaces in their natural state. It was the last and only opportunity to spend time there.

I realized how everything is changing. People have to decide what may stay and what will be left behind. People are the reason behind the existence of a place like this, the reason for its present magic and atmosphere. That is why I decided to stage these people inside rooms covered in plastic as the single vivid object while everything else vanishes into blurred memory. Things can be replaced physically but the internal void remains. Tons of furniture and years of dust and rust will be destroyed but what will happen to the residents? Is it possible to fit everything you have into boxes? To pack all the history, memories and “genius loci” of the place, to take it with you wherever you go? What is the taste of leaving?