Don't wake me!

Born in the heart of teenage confinement, shifting consists of propelling oneself, through self-hypnosis and/or meditation, into an alternative universe to explore new territories and meet new people. Resulting from a certain solitude, this method of escape, requiring patience and perseverance, allows one to experience alternative mental states through a sort of powerful lucid dream, where it is possible to experience one’s 5 senses. Elsa Kostic went to meet several «shifters» (the community being mainly feminine) during a stay of several months in Los Angeles, the nerve center of new forms of spirituality. From these encounters, she has produced a body of photographs composed of portraits and still lifes that capture the magical and mysterious dimension of the shiting experience. Games of mirrors, contrasts, abysses: the images were often made in collaboration with the shifters and function as portals to the parallel realities they explore (or «desired realities» in the jargon). Like a path strewn with clues like a video or board game (a safe, a giant fork...), the photo series examines how digital cultures, dreams, and fiction influence perception, intrude into reality, and how the latter communicates with the fantastic through back doors.

Elsa Kostic is particularly interested in the power of the shifting experience, in its capacity to stimulate the imagination, restore self-confidence, or provide support to its practitioners, whether through the «desired reality» or through the community of «shifters» gathered on social networks. She also dwelt on the more metaphysical scope of the phenomenon, as shifting allows one to experience the profound plasticity of reality and blur and push back established mental boundaries and reference points. With her iconic portraits, Elsa Kostic represents shifters as sublime adventurers visiting new states of consciousness, magical passers-by of the multiverse, guides, and heroines of modern times.