Hello everyone! Sorry for kinda returning to the topic of an exhibition that finished 3 weeks ago, the thing is I fell into a gap of vacation a few days after the opening and now I am back with some clear thoughts I wish to express.

Gaps are essential. For me – definitely. Before the epoch of coronavirus home office, I cared a lot about my fixed office hours not to overlap on my private time with no decent reason. I have a separate social net account and phone number for office hours. I need the opportunity to hide in the gap of non-working. With home office it got a bit mixed up, so a major gap was needed – an archaeological expedition for vacation.

I’ve been spending part of my summer vacation in an expedition for 10 years now – more than 1/3 of my life. For me, the saying that the best rest is the change of activity is 100% true. But anyway, expedition routine: wake up at 5:30, 7 hours of physical work under shining sun with 30-40 degrees C, living in tents on seashore with supplies of sweet water only for cooking (no shower at all!) – might seem a bit frightening. But it’s not. It is an opportunity to fall in the gap of being a different person, an opportunity to be awake for 19 hours and get enough rest with a 5-hour sleep, an opportunity to be and chat with others 24/7, that mutes your inner voice for all the stay (it tunes out to be very mentally healthy!) Sounds like some fashionable rehab practice in India, but it’s not about you, it’s about archaeology and science.

Instead of more words, I would like to share an amateur video we made. Shot on a smartphone by us, the song – by one of our volunteers, who has just graduated from school. I believe it transmits some of the magic of the process.

What I wish to remember – gaps are essential, we should mind to preserve the gaps.