STATEMENT: Breath

As an expert in art who everyday lives with artworks in the Metro stations of his city, Athens, one of the pioneering and most significant public art projects in Greece, which began in 2004 and continues to add new works, would not have been impressed by Kimsooja’s artwork “Breath” that was installed last week at the Mairie de Saint-Ouen station on Line 14 in Paris, if it wasn’t truly astounding! The idea of “Breath”, was initiated in 2018, but put on hold due to COVID-19 pandemic and has now been realized. It is a work with different perspectives, because it operates differently each time, but the emotions it evokes remain the same. The viewer feels as though they are enveloped in a vast bundle of light that encompasses them but also emanates from the deepest point of their existence. It spreads throughout the space, interacting with those around it and merging with them like a breath, a movement, a light. As the artist says “To me, it is another type of Bottari in transit for urban life. I wish this piece gives hectic Parisian life a moment of breath, reflection, and positive energy on their way”.

Photo:  Kimsooja, Breath, 2023, Paris- Metro Station Mairie de Saint-Quen, © Kimsooja, Photo: © & Courtesy Dimitris Lempesis