“As I moved out of my lavish studio in the 6th arrondissement, I moved in to a small and cheaper flat in the 10th and had to make all my stuff fit in. I sold the large double desk, donated my 2000 books to the local public library and turned my new place into a three dimensional scrapbook much inspired by my recent trips to India.

Originally white, I painted the ceiling dark brown and the walls in a shade of drab to balance the awkward proportions of the room. I was not in a sedentary mood then and had recently become passionate about sailing.

This little flat became my harbor between long travels and had to shelter the memories of my adventures across the sea. Between the urban and the exotic, this place is me, entirely.” [1]

“”Inhabiting” does not only mean living within. It means occupying—infusing a particular site with our presence, and not only with our activities and physical possessions but also with our aspirations and dreams. Samuel Clemens wrote of his Hartford home: “Our house was not unsentient matter—it had a heart and soul, and eyes to see with; and approvals and solicitudes and deep sympathies; it was of us, and we were in its confidence and lived in its grace and in the peace of its benedictions. We never came home from an absence that its face did not light up and speak out in eloquent welcome—and we could not enter it unmoved.”” [2]

ALL IMAGES OF IVAN TERESTCHENKO’S FLAT TAKEN BY THE ARTIST, VIA ITOPUS.BLOGSPOT.COM; TEXT AS WRITTEN BY THE ARTIST [1], AND BY WITOLD RYBCZYNSKI, AS TAKEN FROM “THE MOST BEAUTIFUL HOUSE IN THE WORLD” [2], 1989