Breathing Space invites the viewer to enter an altered perspective—both physically and perceptually—through the sound of a person breathing underwater. The work centers on embodied experience, questioning control, agency, and the relationship between observer and observed.

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Filmed from beneath the surface of an indoor swimming pool, the video captures the shifting play of light and distortion through water. Accompanying this is the intimate, rhythmic sound of breathing—an inescapable presence that fills the room. This sonic element is central: sound, unlike image, cannot be avoided. It insists on proximity. It asks: Can you choose not to listen? Can you choose not to breathe along?

 

By creating a space where the audience is physically immersed—in some installations, lying down on a bench or daybed beneath a ceiling projection—the work invites not only spectatorship but participation.

 

Through dark, abstract sequences, Breathing Space gives room for the viewer’s own associations. It plays with the idea of breaking the "fourth wall"—a gesture borrowed from theatre and film—in which the artwork acknowledges the viewer directly, blurring the roles of observer and subject. At moments, the person behind the breath comes into view. But even then, the gaze is mirrored: Who is experiencing whom?

 

Ultimately, the work asks not just whether we are willing to be affected—but whether we can prevent it.

 

Breathing Space has been exhibited in several forms, including at Gothenburg Art Museum, Röda Sten Konsthall, Mimers Konsthall (Kungälv), and Kungsbacka Konsthall