An installation by Danae Stratou, 2000
“…Deep within the ground there are caverns and tunnels and ways for the sacred energy to travel. Earth inhales and exhales just as we do; sacred life energy moves within her body as it does in ours…”
Hopi Indians
This work was originally installed and shown at an old warehouse in Athens, near the docks of Piraeus harbor. This is a very interesting, industrial area, which is a natural junction between the city and the sea. The space was left untouched, old and dilapidated as it was. Upon entering the installation’s space, the viewer is enveloped by the scent of earth as he physically walks upon the rich layer of reddish earth that covers the entire space. At the center of the space, a round pool of light attracts the viewer to approach. The gentle esoteric sounds of breathing and the subtle rhythmic movement of the earth itself furthers the magnetic pull on the viewer’s senses creating an active involvement, as all of the senses are evoked. At the installation’s centre, inanimate earth was energized and given movement. The breathing motion “expands” and energizes the whole space. The sounds are echoes of the primal act of breathing. This work seeks to motivate the synergy between the intellectual and the emotive realms thus evoking the physical recollection of the ‘memory-experience’ of a primeval relationship to the world.
Breathe has been presented in the following exhibitions:
2000
BREATHE & WATER SECTION | Solo exhibition | Sarantopoulos Flour-Mills, (Athens – Greece). Curated by Efi Strousa
2001
1st Bienal de Valencia 2001 | Passions. Main exhibtion Boby and Sin, (Valencia, Spain). Curator Achille Bonito Oliva.
Christie’s Contemporary (Athens, Greece). Curated by Elisavet Lyra.
