The interactive immersive installation “Traces and Passages” reflects on the abandoned sanatoriums of Tskaltubo and the transformation of a once-functional space into something residual and in-between. Visitors stand in a room composed of fragments from the abandoned buildings: floorboards, architectural debris, wallpapers, objects, and newspaper clippings are exhibited on the wall. Right beneath them is receipt paper displaying the long history of bathhouses from Tskaltubo, most of which are ruined. At the center sits a children’s bathtub, filled with water. Objects retrieved from the site rest inside, and visitors are invited to interact with them. Movements in the water alter the sound and image of the room: a microphone captures impacts, radio speakers replay processed audio, and a live camera records the visitors. This feed, shown on an old TV, merges with photographed textures of abandoned living spaces and changes with every interaction with the water.

Water, once sustaining the town as a key component of the sanatorium’s healing nature and later contributing to decay, inspires the work’s reflection on abandonment, material memory, and time.