Paris_installation detail_the air between us_cecilia white 2014
On Tuesday 11 and Wednesday 12 February 2014 at the Cite’ internationale des arts in Paris Cecilia White performed her latest work ‘breathing space: the air between us‘. This interdisciplinary performance and installation explores how we remember self and other through time and space. She notes – the first word we forget is ‘to breathe’ – an infinitive, an open space, timeless…
Her work begins with the question: How many sides does air have?
And what is the space between our connection?
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The breath is often forgotten, ignored or misjudged. The same may be said for our connections to self and other, to the in(de)finite. This work investigates the (im)material relationship – the self and other registering connection and its in(de)finite nature.
‘I recall the first two sentences taught to me at the Alliance Francaises in Sydney were: je suis desole’(e) and je suis perdu(e). They were intended as markers to signal a need to shift connection between a non-French speaker (me) and a French speaker. They also bring to mind the many other ways we are lost or sorry. Or sometimes want to be. These two sentences become a part of our lives, spaces or rooms we (de)(re)construct to house relationship. I wonder how we register that air between us. How many sides does air have? It’s colour and sound? To be lost suggests a hope to be found, to be sorry suggests loss. There is space between ‘lost’ and ‘loss’ where threads of language register our breath, as in Georges Perec’s novel “La vie: mode d’emploi”. Language in its many forms sews threads of experience and material together. In that way it may simultaneously reveal the immaterial, the unknowable – spaces of tenderness, change, storm. And beyond words, there is time and space – that often fleeting, yet sometimes familiar Bachelardian place where we breathe – and in itself is a breathing space. Remember…’
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Location: Studio 2053 between 6 – 10pm each evening for two durational performances and breathing space.
Performance: sound, body, text
Installation: various
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This event was part of the Open Studios program of the Cite’ internationale des arts.