pulmón que respira

In The Breathing Lesson (2001), a young girl receives lessons in breathing techniques. Placing her breath (her life) in the hands of a trainer, the work probes questions of trust and intimacy, for giving someone else control over your breathing is, in itself, an act of bodily dispossession. Dora García explores the concept of meaning, attempting to interpret even the slightest sign as a potential signifier. She addresses the theme of scripted experience, turning spectators into heroes of fiction, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not.

The screening will be followed by a conversation between blanca arias and Anna Irina Russell, who will discuss her creative process and her approach to considering air as a sculptural material. Exploring how certain animal species use breath for communication, Irina’s work invites us to reflect on the radical intimacy of sharing an atmosphere, in a beautiful and thought-provoking dialogue with Dora García’s film. How might we welcome the stranger that inhabits us with every inhalation? How can we relate to what takes hold of us unpredictably? How do we receive the mark of difference, make peace with what is unfamiliar to us, and embrace contagion with tenderness?

Activity curated by HAMACA

Curated by blanca arias

With the participation of Anna Irina Russell 


Dora García

Dora García explores the concept of meaning, attempting to interpret even the slightest sign as a potential signifier. She addresses the theme of scripted experience, turning spectators into heroes of fiction, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not.

https://hamacaonline.net/authors/dora-garcia 


blanca arias 

Artist-researcher, mediator and curator. Her practice is grounded in the realm of imagery, from which she conjures potential lesbian feminist gestures and materialities. She is a member of the collectives Bestiari Queer (with Víctor Ramírez Tur) and amor rumor (with edu rubio), both situated at the intersection of art, teaching and critical thought. She is also a volunteer at the Ca la Dona archive. Blandito blandito. ¿Qué le hacemos les feministas al arte? (ed. Cielo Santo) is her first book.

https://blanca-arias.cargo.site 


Anna Irina Russell

Artist. She uses sculptures and installations as a basis for speculating on non-hegemonic communication processes. She often works with play as a tool for investigating, highlighting and subverting certain pre-established communicative structures that usually go unnoticed. In recent years, she has developed work using soft materials and inflatable membranes, exploring a specific form of animal communication in which creatures increase their volume or inflate a membrane to communicate or protect themselves from danger.

www.annairinarussell.com