Breathe with Me at Hamburger Kunsthalle

As part of the group exhibition “Breathing” at Hamburger Kunsthalle, Jeppe Hein invited the audience to breathe together at the event room of the Gallery of Contemporary Art.
The world’s first large-scale exhibition on the theme of breathing in the art of the Old Masters and the present day looks at the many different facets of the act of breathing and its representation. More than 100 works engage in exciting dialogues, in some cases across the epochs. The result is an unconventional exploration of an existential theme that at first glance seems to be merely an unconscious, biological process but which in fact unfolds myriad social and political dimensions: from breath as a central biblical metaphor and an expression of our relationship to the world, onward to air pollution and respiratory illnesses, all the way to the Black Lives Matter movement (»I can’t breathe«).
Organised into different chapters, works by some 45 artists from 18 countries grapple with the topic of breathing in all its many facets, illustrating its socio-political and global relevance as well as its current explosive potential.

Photos by Jeppe Hein