It's one of the most intimate relationships: air is stroking our skins, entering our bodies in a never-ceasing flow of ebb and tide, caressing our very insides. We’re cocooned in it, safely wrapped in air, inconspicuously floating through a seemingly endless and lush abundance, not even noticing it. Unless our ur-element becomes perilous due to an airborne virus. - Can this newly gained sensitivity assist us in becoming conscious of the fragility of relations that form life?
We take our first breath 10 seconds after we're born, beginning a life-long cycle that incorporates us directly and dynamically into the atmosphere of Earth and connects us to all other life-forms. Every moment of our lives, we’re depending on these relations: air's oxygen reddening our blood, rushing into our hearts, enabling us and our animal family to live, exhaling carbon dioxide for our plant relatives' photosynthesis, thus jointly creating and re-creating the conditions for our planet’s habitability.
Judging by our actions, we're unaware of this fluid interconnectednes in our daily dealings. The surrounding air, instead of inspiring awe, merely seems to feature as an abstract idea, an absence of objects, just more space to conquer and utilise. - How can we learn to move more carefully? - Breathing in, breathing out, we can experience being part of the universal body of air. There is no dividing line, no inside and outside, no other and self, there is no place where humans are safe from the effects of the Anthropocene.
Performance with scientific fog,
cellophane, silver textile and weather balloons
Commissioned by Edel Extra Nürnberg
Supported by Tintschl Unternehmensgruppe
The accompanying installation uses data documenting the rising average temperature in Germany due to air pollution.
Time series and trends in °C from 1881 to 2020 (Source: Deutscher Wetterdienst):
1881 7,3 1882 8,3 1883 7,9 1884 8,61885 7,7 1886 8,0 1887 7,0 1888 6,9 1889 7,4 1890 7,3 1891 7,4 1892 7,5 1893 7,9 1894 8,1 1895 7,3 1896 7,6 1897 7,9 1898 8,5 1899 8,1 1900 8,4 1901 7,6 1902 7,2 1903 8,4 1904 8,4 1905 8,0 1906 8,3 1907 7,8 1908 7,5 1909 7,4 1910 8,4 1911 9,0 1912 7,9 1913 8,5 1914 8,5 1915 7,9 1916 8,4 1917 7,5 1918 8,5 1919 7,3 1920 8,6 1921 9,0 1922 7,2 1923 8,0 1924 7,5 1925 8,3 1926 8,7 1927 8,0 1928 8,3 1929 7,4 1930 8,8 1931 7,6 1932 8,3 1933 7,6 1934 9,5 1935 8,4 1936 8,4 1937 8,6 1938 8,6 1939 8,3 1940 6,6 1941 7,2 1942 7,3 1943 8,9 1944 8,3 1945 9,0 1946 8,4 1947 8,5 1948 9,0 1949 9,1 1950 8,6 1951 8,7 1952 7,9 1953 8,9 1954 7,7 1955 7,5 1956 6,8 1957 8,6 1958 8,2 1959 9,0 1960 8,4 1961 8,9 1962 7,1 1963 7,1 1964 8,1 1965 7,5 1966 8,5 1967 8,9 1968 8,1 1969 7,8 1970 7,7 1971 8,4 1972 7,8 1973 8,2 1974 8,8 1975 8,9 1976 8,5 1977 8,7 1978 7,8 1979 7,7 1980 7,6 1981 8,2 1982 8,9 1983 9,0 1984 8,0 1985 7,4 1986 7,9 1987 7,4 1988 9,1 1989 9,5 1990 9,5 1991 8,3 1992 9,4 1993 8,5 1994 9,7 1995 8,9 1996 7,2 1997 8,9 1998 9,1 1999 9,5 2000 9,9 2001 9,0 2002 9,6 2003 9,4 2004 8,9 2005 9,0 2006 9,5 2007 9,9 2008 9,5 2009 9,2 2010 7,8 2011 9,6 2012 9,1 2013 8,7 2014 10,3 2015 9,9 2016 9,5 2017 9,6 2018 10,5 2019 10,3 2020 10,4
Photos top to bottom:
Lena Hofer
Lana Novikova
Anna Steward
Video by 7streich