BREATHE

June-August 2024 at the NOI Techpark Bolzano, with official opening on 4 July 2024

Since autumn 2023, Khalil Berro and his studio have been working with the Atmospheric Dynamics research group at ETH Zurich to calculate the origin of the air samples he has gathered in the Swiss Alps. This collaboration has evolved into a public art project that reinterprets notions of reality and nature constructs. It aims to make the human understanding of air movement and the interconnectedness of all life tangible.

Real-time calculations by Dr. Michael Sprenger and Dr. Hanna Joos at the Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science provide a historical record of the air we breathe today. The results (names of cities where the air has been) are projected onto the façade of building A1 in the NOI Techpark in Bolzano in the style of a stock market ticker. The realisation that the air we are currently breathing was circulating over the glaciers of Greenland or being released by trees in the Amazon just a few days or weeks ago makes the global interconnectedness of all life tangible to the viewer. By suggesting a Wall Street atmosphere, it also raises the question of whether essential natural elements such as air or water could become the new currency.

https://noi.bz.it/en/for-the-public/summer-at-noi