The air is part of our body and our cells belong to it. Through breathing, countless particles are exchanged from one body to another. Through the shared air, a common body is formed—Merleau-Ponty’s “flesh”—sharing viruses, DNA, ideas, and emotions.
Breathing is considered an elementary act of communication, even a pre-linguistic form of mental or psychic expression. The Common Breath Amplifier (CO.BR.A) is a circular installation of hanging funnels that function as natural loudspeakers to share human breathing and the sound of voices in the space between them. As the subjects of the installation gather and place their mouths on the mouthpiece, their breathing is amplified by the others in the space between them. All breaths can be gathered as a total sound mass that moves in the common space from body to body.
The COBRA installation offers the ground for a collective sonic expression, and movement of air molecules, that seeks and insists on the existence of fundamental and non-negotiable conditions: the right to breathe and the right to share the same air.
Installation: aluminum funnel, buckets, cadrons, cord
CLIMATE ENGINES / Stegi, Onassis Foundation,
Curated by: Daphne Dragona, Jussi Parrika
Laboral, Gijon, Spain 2023