The Act of Breathing
The exhibition The Act of Breathing, name of which departing from the poem L’Acte de Réspirer by Congolese writer and poet Sony Labou Tansi, explores the breath: a repetitive and instinctive force, a necessity. But, as Labou Tansi reminds us, the breath can also be approached as a potential tool for political resistance, as one has to be stubborn to uphold the right to breathe. This stubbornness arises when a breathing circuit is disrupted and suffocated by structural power systems of oppression. When voices are silenced. When earth is depleted. When collectivity is shattered. When music loses its soul. It’s in those moments that the continuous reclaiming of air becomes a space for battle, for gathering, for healing. The participating artists take over the Asiat-site with predominantly site-specific installations that connect to each like one long breath, transmitting energy and linking body to body to form a strong alliance.
The opening of the exhibition coincides for the first time with the three-day immersive Horst Arts & Music Festival from April 29 to May 1. ’The Act of Breathing’ will — after its glorious opening during the Festival — run from May 12 to July 31.
Artists
Asiat, Vilvoorde
Anthony Ngoya, Benjamin Orlow, Kris Lemsalu, Laure Prouvost, Leonard Pongo, Maika Garnica, Michèle Magema, mountaincutters, Pascale Marthine, Tayou Soraya, Lutangu Bonaventure & Ali-Eddine Abdelkhalek
Cinematek, Brussels (free)
Agnès Lalau, Jean Kabuta, Mega Mingiedi