Breath /Break #3 - Mads Floor Andersen

Breath /Break is a series of work that carries a destructive element to it or as people have described it: self-destructive. One part of the series is an attempt to deal with set notions of self and the social tendency of singularising, territorialising and separation, such as identity, nationalism, career and ideas. In opposition I seek to highlight images made of diversity, fragility, temporary and unfolding processes. Thus breaking is about destroying fixed notions, which lies within our social tendencies and myself, yet it is also a destruction, which encourages transformation and processes of heterogenesis* as nothing is lost, only because it looses its form.

*Heterogenesity is an expression of desire, of becoming that is always in the process of adapting, transforming and modifying itself, in relation to its environment.’ (Felix Guattari)

Part 3

Celebrate the moment before it is gone, transformed and mixed in an aftermath of wine and confetti. My breath is exhaled into a wine glass, which is tight against my cheeks. Moist and residue is culminating on the inside of the glass and opposite direction is another wine glass facing outwards, away from me, filled to the rim with the surrounding air.

Breathe in – exhale. Breathe out -inhale. A selfish act – a personal moment -, broken as I begin to greet everyone in the room with a handshake. A moment of contact and exchange before I lead them into the room one by one. I keep moving people, changing formations, breaking constellations, making two people holding hands or touch someone else’s shoulder.

Wine. Soap bubbles, streamers, balloons, disposable camera, confetti – all served in wine glasses. Each audience with their own. People begin blowing bubble, balloon and streamers. Drinking wine and taking photos. It become playful, festive – we are all performing, as confetti is everywhere in-between, giving colour to the invisible. I take a red string of yarn and connect everyone, as well as glasses.

Red line, the main thread, life line perhaps or a social(istic) one even. When everyone is connected, I retrieve the line, though this time I twine it around my head, till the whole string, glasses and a balloon are dangling from my face and neck. Creating a deformed face, an identity of smear residue of fingerprints, lips and breaths. I cheer, by cracking the wine bottle against the glass. Against my face again and again, transforming my appears, as pieces of glass fall to the ground like water drops after a bursting soap bubble

All Photos by Stu Allsopp
Presented as part of Live Art and Performance Group

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