Collective Performance

Author:                      Jorge Restrepo                    

Title:                           “Breath”

Photography:          Mateo Munoz           

Texts:                        Melissa Angel

Date:                          30 December 2008

Annex:                       Drawings

Place:                        Benalcazar Secondary School, Cali, Colombia

Genre:                       Collective performance/happening
Materials:                 “Apparatus,” inflatable balloon (1 m in diameter, black garments for all those participating in the activity

Participants: Cecilia Florez de Herran, Jorge Andres Delgado Alvarez, Jaime Herran Florez, Homero Granada Arango, Jesusita Herran Florez, Alberto Betancourt Velasquez, Jaime Alberto Betancourt Herran, Estefania Lopez Ospina, Ximena Betancourt Herran, Oscar Estrada Lopez, Esperanza Herran Florez, Jorge Ignacio Gonzalez Hurtado, Juan Manuel Gonzalez Herran, Veronique Leroy, Jorge Alejandro Gonzalez Herran, Anne Marie Leroy Lopez, Martha Cecilia Herran Florez, Alejandro Velosa Payan, Sofia Velosa Herrán, Santiago Velosa Herran, Carlos Arturo Herran Florez, Martha Hincapie Aristizabal, Carlos Arturo Herran Hincapie, Ana Lucia Herran Hincapie, Claudia Herran Florez, Julian Andres Gómez Herran, Victoria Palacios García, Martha Lucia Restrepo Ramos, Henry Guerrero, Norbeyda Lopez Lopez, Antonio Florez Currea, Nancy Palomino de Florez, Patricia Flórez Palomino, Carlos Alberto Zapata Alban, Maria Alejandra Zapata Florez, Nury Cabrales de Guzman, Melissa Angel Cabrales, Blanca Florez Currea, Ivan Cruz, Pilar Cabrales Flórez

Objective

Act that induces reflection about different aspects of the family and of society in general:

The spiritual union of the family. Humanity’s commitment to future generations, what we leave out descendents, the heirs to the universe… The Planet’s limit of resistance in the face of human pressure…. entropy…negentropy…

Images are created about teamwork…solidarity…the group…inclusion… perfect fusion and union.  Looking at the sky, focused on a new planet, on the creation of that new planet; I refer to the metaphoric creation of a new system of life on the planet Earth and also in the very long term…

In times of global warming, what do we think about the act of symbolically gathering the last breaths of a family? What happens when there is no other breath?

Can the group strength, the new legacy based on knowledge and information, generate the negentropic fundamentals, essential for a new emigration in the search for a planet?

Is there a feeling of limitless expansion in the human being?

Background

I have been making drawings and collective works that speak of the planets and the relation of the human being to them. During the last month especially, I have been addressing the concept of negentropy, which speaks to us of an inner human force contrary to entropy. 

The Herrán-Flórez family holds yearly reunions at which they carry out different activities such as prayer as part of their Catholic religion, integration, reflection, relaxation, and personal and family planning.  What better space than the family itself–the artist’s extended family on his wife Claudia Herrán’s side?to express such profound concepts?

Description

An apparatus was made that could gather simultaneously the breaths of 42 people. During the Herrán-Flórez family’s reunion at year’s end, there are different types of activities, one of which–the artistic one?was assigned to my wife Claudia and me.  I brought up this proposal to include the family in my artistic work as part of a set of family activities.

The apparatus was made mostly out of PVC. A 4”-diameter PVC pipe was used, one end of which was plugged with the same material.  At the other end, a 4”-diameter PVC joint was used, then a reduction coupling from 4” to 1”, a 1”-diameter segment, and at the end of this, a 1”-PVC joint.  This last one was used to hold the inflatable balloon. Then 42 black rubber hoses with variable lengths, were screwed into the pipe and reinforced individually with epoxy resin. Each one was fitted with threaded hose nipples or mouthpieces.