Ana Torfs &
Breathing, slowly and audibly. Air is drawn in intensely and expelled with a soft whistling sound, filling the exhibition space, inviting interaction and pause. In the rhythm of inhalation and exhalation, words and sentences appear playfully on a screen with four staggered light bands of a vintage lightbox from the 1950s and dissolve as if through the breath on the slightly flickering screen. Within the cinematic installation When You Whistle, It Makes Air Come Out, the lightbox was filmed at 30 frames per second in the HD video in order to retain the flickering image movement. Here, the Belgian artist Ana Torfs has recorded her own breathing and used it to vitalize the child's observations about air and wind: »When you blow it comes out of your mouth« and »It goes in by the nose, and then it goes out«.
The movement described and the exploration of air, oxygen, wind, as they are essential within bodies, for plants and in the outside world, were topics of the influential Swiss biologist and developmental psychologist Jean Piaget. In his multi-stage method, he used experiments with children to gain insights into their cognitive abilities, which got then subject of his physiological study of child perception in La causalité physique chez l'enfant in 1927. The active participation of the children was a substantial part, but so were their spontaneity and curiosity, which inspired them to ask poetic and philosophical questions such as: ›Why do we breathe? And do dreams and thoughts also consist of air?‹
With her work reminiscent of early cinema, Ana Torfs has created a sensually, acoustically and visually stimulating installation that is shown either as a projection on a wooden screen with a tripod or as an LED screen in homage to cinema displays. It subtly explores thresholds of perception and allows viewers to participate in the thought experiment through light, sound, technology and the activation of their bodies. (Lilian Haberer)
Produced by: vzw NN
