who owns the city?

center for contemporary arts | celje | slovenia 2024

When I was asked the question “who owns the city?” I realized that I simply could not answer it the way we were taught at university and the way I used to think about it. At first I said no one. Then that the city does not matter at all. Then something else. Then something else. I changed my mind and my answer many times. Each time answering differently, each time finding new arguments for one or another thesis. I began to guess that this question is so difficult for me because I tried to answer about those cities that I do not know the answer to Lubny, Chervonohrad, Lviv, Kyiv, Graz.
Therefore, my answer is that the city belongs to the one who thinks about it.
Now I am thinking about Kharkiv, about my city.