« L’air que tu respires a un air de cave
Est un air qui a déjà été expiré
Qui a été rejeté par des hyènes
Le fumier de cet air personne ne peut
plus le respirer »

Henri Michaux « Je rame »

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Gaïa is the first phase of a more global project. It was born out of a residency at CERN. During this residency, Yann Marussich worked on the feasibility of levitating the body. He worked with magnets. And while theoretically possible, the realization would be very costly, with no guarantee of the consequences for the body. Nevertheless, the research was fascinating. In February 2024, as his residency at CERN drew to a close, Yann Marussich embarked on a new phase of work, exploring other avenues towards levitation. It's going to be a long road, because levitation is a complex subject. That's why we're working in stages. It's interesting to work in artistic stages. At each stage, milestones will be set, with the aim of each one functioning both autonomously and invisibly linked to the others.

Gaïa 1 : Ph- will be the first stage.

This performance is about the complex relationship between the human body and the body of the earth. One enclosed in the other and vice versa. Human complexity in a minimalist device.

A whole man in a transparent balloon, inflated to the brim and shaped like a globe. A man breathing through a diving snorkel. Lack of air. Suffocation. Without his snorkel, he dies. To breathe, he must breathe. He must remain enclosed. The earth becomes a prison. And men become prison guards. Men become the prison wardens. Men also become prisoners of themselves. You have to pay to breathe on this earth. You have to go far to breathe healthily. It's expensive. This is the beginning of social inequality. What can we do? accept the defeat of humanity? give way to barbarism? how can we fight without taking up arms? How can we fight with the butter knife of poetry? You can invent a lot of things, but healthy air can't be invented.

To breathe. What is the act of breathing? Breathing is life. There is no life without breathing, and we all tend to forget that. But what are we breathing? Air contaminated by industry, which somehow colonizes the air we breathe. How can we let this happen to us? We're marching in unison towards asphyxiation. But things have to change.

© Théo Dufloo