About the project

As you breathe in and feel the air coursing down into your lungs, the origins of this air are often disregarded unless catastrophic events such as volcanic eruptions or radioactive fallout demand increased awareness. Through the calculation of air parcels from each exhibition space, the historical journey of every person’s breath present is tracked and simultaneously constructed.

BREATHE proposes a questioning of human belief systems and definitions of the non-human through the medium of air. It confronts the public with arranged facts and seeks out the dissonances with their own understanding of climate and the ‘environment.’ Just as the air serves as a conduit linking human lives and distant lands, hidden industrial landscapes are also physically linked to us – as proximate as they are distant, and as public as they are secret. The individual integrates into the collective mass of the atmosphere, within a particular moment and place. The concept of absolute independence is revealed as an illusion: everything is conditional on everything else.

This mixture of imagination and scientific data is fuelled by real-time calculations conducted by Dr. Michael Sprenger and Dr. Hanna Joos at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zurich, led by Prof. Dr. Heini Wernli. Learn more about the science here. The results of these calculations, delineating the air’s journey, complete with city names and timestamps – are projected onto multiple facades across Europe. The scrolling text, reminiscent of stock tickers cascading across Wall Street skyscrapers, echoes the ambiance of high-stakes trading. Air, clouds, and water are suggested as potential new commodities in a world driven by trade. Along the cities and timestamps, excerpts from conversations with scientists, poems, and other material collected and created during the calculation processes are projected, such as; no connection can be avoided Present in trace amounts fluctuate significantly I breathe you patterns are only signs of movement.

Participants come to understand that the air they breathe has recently passed through Canada’s burning forests, Greenland’s glaciers, or the Amazon Rainforest a mere two weeks prior. Transforming breathing into a conscious act, challenging human notions of reality and perception, and turning surrounding into incorporating.

Behind the science of BREATHE

Details & Material

Partners & Collaborators

2024
32000 Lumen projection 1 and 2 channel
LED-Screen video 1 channel
Varying length (daily calculations)

Size Zürich:
60m x 30m

Size Bolzano:
40m x 5m

ETH Zürich
D-USYS
Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science
Group for Atmospheric Dynamics
NOI Techpark

3Khalil Berro Studio

khalilberrostudio@gmail.com
Zurich Bedretto Lenzburg
Switzerland

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