The 2022 Exhibition 'The Act of Breathing' will unravel at both Asiat, Vilvoorde as well as Cinematek, Brussels. Asiat will host 10 in-situ artworks engaging with the architectural and symbolic character of the former military base, while 3 other artists come together at Cinematek to be counterparted with a programme of films curated by Monique Mbeka Phoba.
'The Act of Breathing' explores the breath. A repetitive force. An instinctive necessity. A tool for political resistance, when voices are silenced. When earth is depleted. When collectivity is shattered. When music loses its soul.
It's in those moments that the continuous reclaiming of air becomes a space for battle, for gathering. for healing.
The Exhibition considers Congo, and the power it continues to exert, as a pathway that allows to envision where this struggle can lead to: the breath as an element which sculpts, through its repetition, the environment we're inhabiting - physical in its materiality, and symbolic in its political manifestation.
The participating artists therefore take over the Asiat-site with predominantly site-specific installations that connect to each like one long breath, transmitting energy and linking body to body to form a strong alliance.
