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Letter of

a woman

Photo Installation

Athens | 2021

As I am writing these words, it’s raining outside. I’m at the office of the company I work for in Kreuzberg, East Berlin. It’s a modern start-up in a multi-story glass building. The work environment is pleasant. My coworkers are nice (terribly nice) and maybe a tad non-descript. The company is open to everybody’s gender identity and indifferent to their sexual preferences. They take care of us, offer us breakfast, lunch and alcohol – after the end of the work day of course. There is a gym and showers with towels. There is even a roof garden with a view of the Berlin Tower. The hours are flexible and we can – if we wish – stay there til late at night. We can even have parties with our co-workers. I suspect the company doesn’t like it when we go home. The company loves us and takes great care of us – so much so that it never wants us to be apart. They would offer each of us a room to rest in. I imagine it would be fully furnished with stylish furniture and all the

necessary office equipment so we could work from there if we had to.It could even provide us with nice, comfortable clothes, dinner, or even a romantic partner.

One could say the company seems like a prison but it isn’t so. We work here of our own free will and we don’t want to leave because we are safe and probably happy.

A new coworker came from Kabul to work for the company a month ago, and one morning I heard her say that she finally escaped and she can live free here. Some times I feel trapped in this life. I don’t know why I am not a man; why I was born a woman. If it was someone’s will that I be given this sex.

I am a woman imprisoned in the world of Western start-ups, trapped and programmed to produce labor with no end. Some day, another woman, younger and more efficient than me, with greater motivation and stamina will take my place.

I am so alone.

Model | Katerina Apostolaki
Photo | Stratis Tavlaridis

Photo editing | Marilia Kapetanaki
Text editing | Gerasimos Evangelatos
Translation | Meropi Papastergiou

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