Breathe…is presence, consciousness, health and life!

We can resign to almost everything in life and can survive days without food and water. Without breathing though we can only resist for a few moments. We breathe as long as we live and when we stop breathing we cease to live.Nonetheless we often forget about this essence in our life, the odem, the fountain and the breeze of being.Our modern-day life is so much reigned by stress, tension and nervousness that we must relearn the most essential part of our being: to BREATHE! properly! Most human beings breathe very shallow and unconsciously. That causes physical problems such as muscle tensions and head aches, but also psychological symptoms such as fear and anxiety. The interdependency of both body and mind and their state of tension has an intense impact on the health and happiness of human beings. Although we humans are all different, we do share a commonality whereby our first as our last breath actually opens the door to another dimension and that each breath in between gives us the opportunity to be happy and healthy. With this installation, we want to make people aware about reconnecting with themselves and to nature by just breathing consciously. This sculpture seeks to inspire the observer interactively, both visually and auditory.

The sculpture itself is a person kneeling in a meditative pose. The skeleton is composed of steel structures which are covered in a crystalline artificial resin, producing a satin effect with a homogenic diffusion of light.The inner life of the sculpture is hidden and is revealed when the breath illuminates the sculpture, giving a glimpse of the skeleton and its muscles, which are symbolized by the steel armoring. The breathing is animated in seven sequences of twelve seconds cycles. Each cycle consists of 4 seconds of inhalation, holding the breath and exhalation. While inhaling the nose, mouth, throat and chest are illuminated in blue followed by the organs and the rest of the body. This color is a symbol for the enrichment of the body with oxygen. During the phase of holding the breath all the organs that have been filled with oxygen blaze in warm colors. In the phase of exhalation, the body empties from bottom to top from light until it falls into darkness again. Moreover, each of the seven cycles is also illuminating one of the chakras.The tripartite cycle of breath is acoustically accompanied by the sound of breathing. The interaction between the construction, technical illumination and animation creates a synergy between western science and eastern knowledge. We want to combine all facets of our being and inspire through an ambient deceleration that creates an atmosphere stimulated by light and sound and encourages all my fellows to breathe for a happy and healthy presence!

Breathe is a co-production between Circus Lumineszenz and Markus Anders Productions. The sculpture is almost 6 meters high, and there is as well a 2 meters high prototype available.