Julia Shuvchinskaya

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I am so excited, I’m trembling!

Warm nervous shiver fills me up closer to the date

My chest expands, struggling to fit all the shimmering light

 

I enter you

You enter me

 

I love you

You love me

 

I want to capture the beauty of this moment

I want to share those feelings 

 

You are endless, so deep, mystical and eternal. I want to discover your hidden spiky corals and praise them as treasures

 

I am terrified of the idea of going deeper, but I continue my journey in

So scared to lose the ground and get dragged underwater by unknown monsters

I must keep the shore in sight not to dissolve myself completely and violently in your irresistible embrace that promises peace and safety

 

I trust you, I rely on your waves to hold me

 

I submit to the unknown

 

Sea anemones can burn badly, but are safe for the thick skin of a finger. If you stick it in, the creature embraces it and curls around, like a cat. 

Years back, I got burned by sitting on one of them in Croatia. That was an unexpected intimate encounter, which made me terribly happy by underlining the magnificence of my ability to get in silly troubles.

 

 

The Date is set on the Matosinos beach, by the installation called “She Changes”, that represents a giant sea anemone. 

 

Combination of all those factors, names and symbols, led by romantic excitement, has guided me to this spot as the only possible one for my first public date with the ocean.

The idea was to capture the ocean's waves, make big watergrams and develop them right there on the beach. That’s where the first mistake was - I went for the result, for the expectation, not for the process. 
 

What a stupid attitude for a date!

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It was terribly cold
 

we exposed the paper in the water using a flashlight (one camera died in this experiment) but, due to the terrible light pollution on the beach, all images got overexposed while I ran from the ocean to our improvised lab. 

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So it’s there, but we can’t see it. 

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The expectation creates a blinding spotlight that shrouds reality with the projection of 

the desired outcome

 

My expectation:

 

You know, when you go on a date and it turns out not how you expected? It’s very sad indeed! It’s like a stain on your day.

You know, when you make a stain on your favorite tablecloth but have no energy to wash it, you just cover it with a cute clean napkin, to hide something you dislike and make it look pretty.

 

So I decided to rethink the outcome of The Date and let go of some bad dating experiences I had throughout the years and countries. 

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Julia Shuvchinskaya

Franzisca Nagelova 

Bart Stock

 

6-7-8 February 

2025