With his new exhibition artist Gosha Ostretsov proposes an experiment to prove or disprove the possibility of time travel. Just like Stephen Hawking's 2009 private party, this show will be an occasion for time travellers to show up – or not – at the appointed time and place. Such a simple and elegant solution to a complex scientific question transforms the entire exhibition space into an ephemeral performance. The artist invites each viewer to witness the materialisation of guests from the past or future. The new project serves as an artistic interpretation of the theory of time travel through tunnels in space and time, which may possibly derive from black holes. The recent first captured image of the shadow of a black hole's surface intrigues Gosha Ostretsov, who often addresses scientific and futuristic subjects in his projects.

Each work from the new series of works is dedicated to the testimony of a borderline, transitional state during materialisation of objects or people from another space and time. Ostretsov paints portraits of writers, such as Kafka, Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, distorted at the moment of their dematerialisation and "absorption" into an abstract temporary portal. These images belong to the past, but can interact with the present through the simplest mental time travel through time — on book pages. Another part of the project is a funnel sculpture model made by the artist. It is an imaginary artifact symbolising a passage to other universes.

The mysticism of time-travel materialisation is fraught with intimacy of perception of this action itself. After all, assuming in advance that the proposed visual image will be much poorer than the comprehension of such a physical and existential process, the viewer is limited only by their own understanding of the phenomenon. Travelling through time becomes a journey into the depths of oneself and one's potential for awareness. Gosha Ostretsov's art always walks the fine line between the mix of scientific subjects and literature. The artist tackles an intriguing subject, but at the same time reminds you of the speculation on the scientific and philosophical concept of the theory of relativity. Ostretsov offers to look at the possible materialisation of time travellers as an exciting action, a meeting of pure logic and the irrational. This moment can become a mental act that excites the consciousness with a sacrament, an intrigue similar to that in Kurt Vonnegut's novel The Sirens of Titan. Vonnegut describes how the crowd is waiting for the appearance of a man and his dog lost in space and time. Everyone knows that no one will see the process itself, but by the same token the mystery of materialisation seems to be multiplied and strengthened in the projection of each spectator's imagination. What Gosha Ostretsov proposes with his project is a similar boosting of images through changing the trajectory of perception. Whereas, for example, a classic work of art always directs the viewer's thoughts towards the depths of its composition or plot, and a modernist artwork lures into the personality of the author themselves, contemporary art and Gosha Ostretsov open up a new path that starts with the work itself and takes every viewer into the unknown space of intertextual associations.

In his book Lines: A Brief History, English anthropologist Tim Ingold states that any human practice is a process of making lines. According to the author, the world is made up of lines. For Gosha Ostretsov, the very process is a passage along symbolic lines, be it space and time trajectories or storylines of a visual or literary work. Similar to the characters of Jack Kerouac's novel On the Road, for whom the road is life, you too can carelessly travel along the conceivable lines provided by Ostretsov's works. The velocity of movement on this path is always relative to the "space and time" perception of every person. The possibility of time travel is associated with the general theory of relativity, and such a journey is only relevant from the standpoint of comparing the time flow between different objects. That's why the relativity of passing along the path of contemplation of a work turns this process into a conditional journey through time. Therefore, time travelers can not only be mysterious guests who eventually failed to attend Stephen Hawking's party, but also real viewers of this exhibition.

Elizaveta Shagina