Pneuma

Pneuma
Performance P.S. Performance Art Festival Den Haag (NL), photo by Jacques Martens

Pneuma
Our air in motion

Breathe in and breathe out, respire and exhale, grasp and release. Breath is transitory and elementary,
the flow of life. It attracts and pushes things away.

I enter the room with an old suitcase. In this suitcase is a small package. Carefully I unpack this
package and reveal the gold leaves. I take a knife and lift a gold leaf with the knife. I try not to crinkle
the leaf or let it touch the ground. I breathe the gold leaf to the audience through the room. We breathe
together and let the gold leaf dance. At the end of the performance I leave the room with the shared air
and the audience leaves with a small piece of the gold leaf.

Pneuma is about sharing our air and being present in the space and moment with each other. This all is
visualized by a gold leaf, a symbol for the (old) economic system. Through interaction with the audience
the gold leaf creates new sense. For example a gold leaf descend on the foot of a spectator. For a
moment there is a relationship between the spectator, his feet, the performer and the gold leaf. The
gold leaf magnified the intimate contact between people.

Something valuable like a gold leaf shows something invisible but even more valuable: our breath.