Lee Mingwei - Chaque souffle une danse, 2024, Photo Courtesy of LEE Studio, Photo by LIN Wei-Lung, Performer LIU I-Lin
Chaque souffle une danse (performance)
The performance is free and takes 30 minutes.
You can book a time slot via this link or the button below.
Every day at 18:00 a number of tickets will be made available at STUK Reception.
In Lee Mingwei’s Chaque souffle une danse, a series of alabaster slabs with the artist’s ‘breath drawings’ are placed atop of tripod-like stands arranged in a swirling constellation. As the artist developed a practice of breathing exercises to cope with the emotional burden of escalating global discord, he simultaneously developed a practice of breath drawing, which took place over an extended period of time at dusk: ‘The drawing would emerge from several sustained, contemplative breaths that distributed ink over the surface. Each one thus assumed a distinctive essence, an embodiment of the atmospheric conditions and emotional context inherent at the specific moment of creation.’
Over the course of Artefact’s exhibition and festival, the installation is activated no less than 12 times in a meditative performance of 30 minutes. On these occasions, a performer enters the gallery space and slowly reveals each breath drawing by lighting a candle. In a second movement, light is taken away again, one candle at a time, until the gallery is veiled in darkness. The performance is not merely a companion to the breath drawings but a metaphysical space for reflection, offering viewers a journey through rhythms that punctuate both art and life, a possible contemplation of the symbiosis between opposites, and how one gives meaning to the other.
PERFORMERS
Chaque souffle une danse will be activated in STUK by Aya Sone, Judith Van Oeckel and Marita Schwanke.
Born in Kyoto, Japan, Aya Sone started taking ballet class at the age of 4. She moved to Germany in 2005 to join the ballet company of Oper Chemnitz. While working in a ballet company, she grew her interest in contemporary dance and continued her training. She moved to Staatstheater Braunschweig, Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz and Landesbühnen Sachsen, worked with a great number of choreographers and danced different styles before she became a freelance dancer in 2015. Now she is based in Munich and actively working as a dancer in and outside Germany. Her works cover extensive art forms which include projects in freelance dance scene, opera productions, performance in museums, educational and experimental projects and interdisciplinary collaborative works of all kinds.
Judith Van Oeckel is a dancer and performer based in Leuven. She graduated from P.A.R.T.S. in 2019 and obtained her Master's degree in Liberal Arts at KASK with highest honours in 2022.
Marita Schwanke is an artist based in Belgium. Born in Hamburg, Germany, she discovered her passion for dance and movement in early childhood. She studied contemporary dance and choreography first at ArtEZ, Arnhem and then at PARTS, Brussels.
