Vitto Valentinov

TERMINALS II is a participatory project proposal. It was part of the NINE ELEPHANTS exhibition from the Swimming Pool Project Space.

In TERMINALS II, I invite visitors to participate in site-specific installations. In each, they follow short instructions to perform a physical activity: one installation – one task – one action. In this experiment I seek to create the connection between the physical act and the invisible . In my previous works, there were direct physical results of a causal nature from the movements of the participants. In this project, it is a challenge for me to motivate visitors to participate without seeing the effect of their actions, but to experience it through their imagination. These mini-constructions with instructions are sort of portals to the unseen.

The П-shaped structures for stomping the carpets in front of the old co-ops or the football gates around the blocks look to me like portals through which, if you pass, you will find yourself in another dimension or time. I love transforming ordinary objects with a mundane function into props for a sci-fi story. I'm interested in fiction as a means to dream or fantasize. If we add the extraordinary, the fantastic, the magical to the trivial, life becomes more exciting, with more layers of significance, with more symbolism and mystery. I love the ability of art to make us freer.

Humans have always sought a connection with the unseen. Belief in gods, spirits and energies invariably refers to its enigmatic presence. Science, too, ventures into the unseen—deeper and deeper into matter and farther and farther into the dark cosmos. Entering the unseen implies tools and instructions. From rituals in Ancient Egypt, through religious temples in the Middle Ages, to the placebo effect in medicine – the invisible often needs material mediating facilities.

A few examples from the instructions:
1 – Speeding through the portal's magnetic fields can transport you to another dimension. 7 – Passing through the narrowest opening can make you invisible. 11 – Observe the construction! If a bird lands on the blue feeder - it will bring you good luck, if it lands on the red one - bad luck. 14 - Any action that takes place just below the middle of the structure will cause an opposite action at the other end of the universe. 18 – This construction is connected to a satellite in space. Stand in (about) the middle of the facility with your arms slightly outstretched to receive the satellite signals. 21 – Go through this portal at exactly 16:45 and 35 seconds.