Breatheee
Artist book, edition 50
14,8 x 21 cm. 16 pages
2024
Installation view: Fotografisk Center (Copenhagen, DK)
Photos by Jenny Sundby and Mads Juel
The exhibition Safelight is made by Mads Juel and Trine Struwe in collaboration with Fotografisk Center. The exhibition takes a site-specific starting point in the location of Fotografisk Center in The Meatpacking District in Copenhagen. In a report of the area, by Vesterbro Lokaludvalg 2023, it is described as a “non-place”. The area does not have a clear definition of use, and it is not clear who has ownership of it.
The artist book Breatheee examines connections between the control performed by language and the restrictions of the body. Through the use of repetitions of words and dissolving grammar, the work poetically reproduces gestures and speech patterns that are self-generating and often go unnoticed. The work is about the autonomy of the individual and the power & impact of language.
The title’s spelling comes from a technical error in my computer keyboard, where extra e's are added when typing. This has started a train of thought of how little it takes to disrupt our perception of meaning when words phonologically change and how the dissolvement of grammar can be a way of thinking about autonomy.
The exhibition deals with ideas of security, control, visibility and invisibility, based on the red safelight used in the traditional photographic darkroom.
The exhibition is accompanied by a text by Paola Paleari.
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