Project starts from a movement we all share: breathing. This process of inhaling and exhaling as an expression of our physical and mental states is in constant change and usually unconscious. Yet it can also be a portal to control psychosomatic phenomena like stress and anxiety. Breath connects mind and body, the yogi said a 1000 years ago. However in these eco- calyptic times where fear is the best selling currency, science tell us about earlier mass extinctions and the cycles of life in our earthly atmosphere. With scientific prose, dance and cutting edge electronic sounds, the audience is invited inside a large inflated lung where performers and visitors become one and the invisible air is shared as a physical and tangible medium.
“Breathing is the first and the last thing you will do, you will breath about 10000 liters of air today. Without breath, no life.”
Vibeke Thorp (text) is lecturer in nutrition physiology. Studied Sociology, English, Writer's Study in Tromsø. Worked as a senior teacher at Høgsk.i Finnmark, project manager at University in Tromsø (96-99), many years as a science teacher in Tromsø. Freelance courseholder, cultural worker, writer. Published the book „Sterk Kost”.
“Haugen Produksjoner” was founded in 2003 by sisters Liv Hanne and Anne Katrine Haugen in connection with their first joint performance "Sisters”. Since then Anne Katrine and Liv Hanne have initiated their own performances, but always in close collaboration with each other. Both have their dance education from London Contemporary Dance School among other places, and have worked in various dance companies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Haugen Productions is now run from Tromsø where both sisters live. “Exhale” is made in collaboration with installation artist Lawrence Malstaf and composer/musician Per Martinsen.
Liv Hanne Haugen, educated in London and Amsterdam, has a long experience as a dancer and performing arts practitioner from Belgium and Norway. She connects to collaborators from most other art fields. She collaborated closely with the artist Mari Boine and installation artist Lawrence Malstaf, and with the starting point in dance, her expression stretches into vocals, performance and text. She was a founding artist collective “Bains::Connective” in Brussels and “RadArt – Tromsø Nettverk for Fri Scenekunst”. In 2010 she studied literature in Tromsø. Liv Hanne teaches weekly classes in improvisation at the 'Peripheral Centre', and at art workshops and studios owned and operated by L Malstaf and LH Haugen. In 2014 her first album with the band “LIV ut; kemedu” was released.
The work of Lawrence Malstaf (b. Belgium) can be situated on the borderline between the visual and the theatrical. He develops installation and performance art with a strong focus on movement, coincidence, order and chaos, and a series of sensorial rooms for individual visitors. Lawrence Malstaf won several international awards in the field of art and new technology and is also known in the dance and theatre world as an innovative scenographer. In 2008 he wins the Witteveen + Bos - prize for Art + Technology (NL), in 2009 he receives the Golden Nica at Prix Ars Electronica (A) and in 2010 he is the winner of the Excellence Prize at the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival in Tokyo (JP). In 2011 his project ‘Pavilion’ is selected for IBBT Art&D call (iMinds) and in this context he collaborates closely with the Ghent University Multimedia Lab. More recently he won the Hedda Prize in Norway for best scenography. He currently lives and works in Tromsø (Norway), exhibits internationally and works closely together with Galerie Fortlaan 17 since 2002.
Per Martinsen has since the late eighties released more than ten albums and numerous singles and EPs, composed music for short and feature films, been behind various art projects, wrote a sci-fi novel and played concerts at numerous Norwegian and international stages and festivals. He has also appeared in and written the script for the short films "Ghost Radio Hunter" (2013) and "Monster" (2014). Martinsen won a Grammy Award for best dance / electronica album in 2015 for "Everything is connected", released under his alias Mental Overdrive.