What if the houses I’ve lived in could talk?
Would they chat to each other?
Would they gossip about me?
Would they even bother?
Would I concur, or disagree?
“This he likes”, “this even more”,
“Did you know that he …”.
Room by room, door-to-door,
A blueprint of me.
Homes record the journeys of our lives from the front row. They appear to do so in silence, but is that really true? If walls could talk, surely houses would too.
As part of his research Between Old Habits and New Habitats, Nik Naudts explores this idea by giving his current home a voice. What does the house he now lives in know that only his former homes would also know? On behalf of his present-day residence, he sends letters to every house he once lived in. These letters reach the current residents of his former homes. What they choose to do with them is not the main purpose.
What if the houses I’ve lived in could talk? (Tact #3) is about evoking and writing down intimate moments that took place in buildings that once sheltered him. It’s an exercise in memory, a way of re-entering the spaces of the past to rediscover old habits or to add new meanings to them.
Nik Naudts invites you to do the same. Share your interest via this link.
You’ll receive specially designed stationery and a pre-stamped envelope to send your own letter to one or more homes from your past.
With your permission, your letter will be included in a publication afterward.
Submissions are open until January 7, 2025, the day on which Reinold, the patron saint of real estate agents, is celebrated.