breathe( )red celebrates the 25th anniversary of an existential space, created by the Swiss architect Bernard Tschumi on the occasion of the event What a Wonderful World!  to display music videos. Originally intended as a temporary structure this extraordinary pavilion in the centre of Groningen has remained very much alive – with constantly changing exhibitions – thanks to its current director Marinus de Vries.

breathe( )red redraws – from sunset to midnight – the architectural structure of the pavilion with artificial light. Darya von Berner thus transforms the completely transparent pavilion into a floating mirroring object. Harry de Wit composed a soundtrack that interacts with the travelling of light coming from the inside of the pavilion. His sound waves originate in the trees that surround the pavilion and are sent from the trees to the glass panels of the pavilion, which then resonate with them.

Bernard Tschumi looked through the lens of phenomenological philosophy of Merleau-Ponty. Here, the conceptual reflection cannot be separated from the sensory experience of the phenomena. For Tschumi, red is not a colour, it is a concept that comes from experience.
breathe( )red is an artistic intervention inspired by Tschumi’s original concept – looking for the intersection of reality and the virtual ¬– in an ever and rapidly changing time in which reality and fiction are interwoven.

breathe( )red was commissioned by Tschumipaviljoen, with the kind support of Light Tape, the City of Groningen, Kunstraad Groningen, GasTerra, Beringer Haezewinkel Fonds and Time Shift.