Story:

The idea of flying in the sky has always moved me emotionally. When I was seven years old, I was unfortunate enough to lose my dad in a car accident – a crime. He was killed by someone who was driving without a licence, who lost control and hit my dad against the flow of traffic. He took his last breath there. I was seven years old.

Katerina talks to us about how this incident left a mark on her life and she explains that there is no greater need for a child than fatherly protection. She grew up with her mum, who fell into deep sorrow after her husband’s death. She recalls that not one year passed that they didn’t fly a kite on Clean Monday and she would see the other kids and remember her father. She tells us she has always kept these emotions inside of her.

For Katerina, the girl flying the kite symbolises the absence of her father and her mum’s literal or metaphorical weakness in raising her. Through immense difficulties she has experienced, that have pushed her to her limits, it has always been a point of reference to her – the girl that holds her spirits high and is always ready to overcome hardships and fly and look at the kite high in the sky.

These are a couple of reasons [that I keep it], but to me they are the whole story about the girl with the kite… it is truly a source of strength for me.

She found this item when she was no longer a little kid. She had kept inside of her the image of her father flying the kite on Clean Monday and at some point when she was a young adult, 21-22 years old, she found this figure in a shop. 

She talks to us about the semiotics of the kite and the act of flying, and about the fact that in other countries they have similar traditions.

[To me it means] to overcome the limits one puts on themselves, to aim high, to keep hoping, dreaming, to look away from the darkness and look towards the light.

She explains that she hasn’t flown a kite for many years now, but she is grateful for her goddaughter, who flies a kite every year and takes videos. This year, she tells us, it flew really high, because of the direction of the wind and because they had tied it well.

It is a procedure that always moves me a lot. This joy, the act of accomplishing, the whole symbolism of the direction of the wind and to unite with the circumstances around me and to feel the joy of accomplishing my aims. There is great strength in it for me and of course there is the paternal absence that marks a child and follows them for the rest of their life.

She tells us that when she saw the figure in the shop she was very happy, precisely because it captured what she had been carrying in her soul. She could have it in tangible form, share it with other people and see it herself.