Don’t forget to Breathe?

Don’t forget to breathe? is a single-channel interactive video installation on dissent. An attempt to awaken the political being that slumbers in all of us.

No change is possible without energy. Without concerted labor, nothing moves. ‘Don’t forget to breathe?’ – attempts to reflect on the simple act of breathing as a key component of transformation. With her breath, a whole series of world changing events is unleashed.

The installation, in its use of breath as a way of revealing footage of protest, attempts to put the viewer in a position of being complicit as well as empowered to affect change.

 

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A black box placed in the center of the room invites the viewer to blow into a pipe coming out from the box. As air is blown through, a film containing protest footage from across the world is projected onto a wall. With the viewers breath running out, the projects shuts close. The viewer’s breath reveals impressions of a protest – or many, depending on how long their breath lasts. The film, a narrative in its own unique way, pieces together images of physical protest and with its often-nostalgic quality revoke the power that a collection of human bodies can have.

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Artists: Karan Talwar (India) and Michaela Talwar (Germany) Developed in collaboration with the Goethe-Institute, Max-Mueller-Bhavan and Khoj International Artists' Association. The installation was first exhibited at Exhibit 320, New Delhi in April 2018.