EVENT HORIZON

The subject of the project is a complicated and ambiguous connection between art and reality in the age of presentiment of dramatic transformations.

Event horizon is a notion borrowed from the current scientific discourse. An imaginary boundary in spacetime beyond which the light ends up in the “trap” of a black hole and never comes back again is an incredibly powerful image. What is it that happens beyond this symbolic boundary? This question is currently central to scientific discussions, as it is event horizon which seems to ask mankind the most important ontological questions: what is existence, matter, life, and what lies beyond our conventional ideas about these notions. Event horizon is the metaphor for the current state of humanity which seems to have approached yet another symbolic “horizon.”

The world of constant changes, which, as it would seem, we accustomed ourselves to long ago, is becoming increasingly twisted, making us reconsider the futurological optimism and faith in the infinity of progress that we had yesterday. The globalization and ultra-fast headway of science and technology are accompanied by countless reactionary phenomena, which are turning into an epidemic before our very eyes. What lies beyond the “event horizon” of today? Can mankind tackle the challenges of the astounding changes? Can we, people of today, recognize ourselves in the post-human that is currently being born in the apocalyptic cocktail made from knowledge and ignorance? Light brings the history of its journey through spacetime to the edge of the black hole. Perhaps, beyond this edge is a portal to another universe? Or maybe there is no event horizon at all, only the so-called “firewall” instead, whose apocalyptic flame will totally and hopelessly annihilate all experience that the light has been carrying to the ruthless and cold black hole for millions of years? In the same way, the contemporary society seems to have approached the threshold of the future, where the History of mankind in its usual sense will either acquire new meanings, or be destroyed by a wave of oblivion and yet unseen catastrophes.

In its aspiration, proximity to the absolute horizon, modern art is the very area where the collision of impossible worlds and worldviews becomes possible, where symbolic, conventional boundaries function. It is this art which allows to see what is unspoken or cannot be spoken out – to see what exactly is beyond the horizon. The project is divided into several nominal chapters, which correlate with the elements of the scientific description of the situation around “event horizon”: Space, Time, Light, Observer.