On each exhalation during the almost 16 hours long séance, Dupont will scratch a line in a copper plate that in the end will form an artwork in the shape of an abstract score. During the last hour of the performance composer and saxophonist Lotte Anker will interpret and express the score in sound. The basic rhythm of life translated to music.
Breathing is the first movement we make in life and the last when we are to leave it. Throughout our time in between it is the act that unites our inner and outer space. The inhalation takes in our surroundings. The exhalation exposes our inside. It is this movement (the breath) that keeps us alive, but it is also what keeps us apart in this historic moment of the Corona-virus.
By forwarding all attention towards the simple act of breathing a mental space opens up that allows for spiritual reflection. In a time when we are all ’holding our breath’ awaiting good news it is our motivation to ‘gather’ in this joint gesture and create a unique and positive moment for everyone in a celebration of art and life.
Through live streaming we invite you all to join in at your convenience during the day and mark your breath with Sophie Dupont, with us, with each other – but physically apart.
Text by Caroline Bøge.
Photos by Caroline Bøge.
Marking Breath The Mind
Time is 5.11 Friday the 8th of May 2020
Im in the location THEKRANE in Nordhavn
high elevated above the earth with the setting of the sun and the Copenhagen north harbor as a backdrop
Sky and sea
Exhalation
I place a mark in the copper
The performance is livestreamed online
Watching the sea and the sky the sun rises
Some boats
Another exhalation
I hear the seagulls
Its calming
The sun sets 16 hours from now
I tap into foreverness
Calming my mind
Another exhalation
I visualise my mind lives in an enormous house
Mostly there is very high up to the ceiling
Lots of space
Mental space
I mark signs that can be read as a score
Another exhalation
I look to the other side of the bay
Anne my friend is standing waving to me
Two other friends also
We swim together every morning
I see two swans
One follows the other
To follow someone or to be followed
My mind starts to wonder which one is better than the other
Another exhalation
Boats starts to come out – preparing for a day at sea
I wonder where they all go
I watch until they disappear into the horizon
I imagine being on the boat
Always follow the wind
I think of the Navahos
They believe in the wind spirit
Exhalation
All in nature is formed by wind
I hear the wind outside
Watching the invisible
Time passes boats passes
I do nothing but marking my breath into the copper
Exhalations
My mind is calm
Foreverness
Nothingness
I think of the swans
Two
Always two sides
Movements
Emotions
Awareness
Who are you in all this ‘being human’?
Exhalation
Life
Back to marking
I stretch out my arms -reaching left and right
I mark
People come
Sharing breaths
Lungs
They will open up the country soon
So many disasters and also so many good things have happened
People have been killed from the virus
People have lost their jobs
Divorces
Exhalation
Less stress
Less pollution
Valuing life more in the small things
Exhalation
A new gratefulness of the smaller everyday life aspects
Exhalation
More space and time
I look over the sea lots of boats
They start returning
People are still coming and sharing their breaths with me.
When we are two the energy rises
Intensity
Precious moments
Sometimes vulnerable moments
Looking into each other’s eyes
Sometimes feels naked
The soul
The spirit
The I
The human
Exhalation
Life
The sun has travelled over the sky
Starts to change colour.
Lotte is getting ready to play her saxofone
Her play will be improvised inspired by my markings
Playing the day
The sun colours the sky
The atmosphere is changing
She begins
I relax into the tunes
Exhalation
Into the sunset