Space to Breathe
Creative action in response to our city’s air pollution crisis
Over 3000 people participated in Space to Breathe, a weekend of creative action in response to London's air pollution crisis.
The artworks, debates and workshops presented over the course of the weekend aimed to make the air pollution enveloping our streets, schools, homes and workplaces more visible, and communicate its potentially life-threatening impact on our health.
More importantly, the exhibition offered solutions as to how individuals and communities can take practical action to make our cities less congested, cleaner and more energy efficient.
Our lungs breathe in and out 23,000 times a day, and each one of us needs just eight Sycamore trees’ worth of oxygen each year. But if a city has demonstrated an inability to provide clean air for its citizens, it is London - a city regularly above legally recognised health limits for air pollution.
Space to Breathe was a weekend of installations, performances, talks and workshops highlighting the impact of air pollution on our health.
What collective action can we take to make our cities less congested, cleaner and more energy efficient?
Audiences and residents were invited to redesign our city’s environment and discuss the ambitious and innovative plans already being implemented across the globe to alleviate the drivers and negative effects of air pollution on our health.
Artists and Artworks
Breathing Mephitic Air
Experience a new commission by Wesley Goatley inspired by the pioneering work of The Environmental Research Group at King’s College London, a leading provider of air quality information and research in the UK. This audiovisual installation explores new ways to experience and understand air pollution and data.
Energy Renaissance
Test out this virtual reality dreamscape in which a young girl ignites environmental change around the Strand and Aldwych in one of the most polluted corners of London. A project by Cape Farewell & Shrinking Space.
SolarSoundSystem
Joining us via Paris, Tokyo and Brazil and COP22 in Marrakech, SolarSoundSystem demonstrates through the power of disco that everyone can rise to the challenge to demonstrate the power of renewables. Come and join in to keep the party going! On Saturday 28 the legendary Jarvis Cocker and invited guests will DJ live!
Lungs
Dave Farnham presented his award-winning works, three 3D printed lungs and ribs of Caroline - a lady who has recovered from Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. The works highlight the fragility of the body, and our capacity to fight pollution with our own physiological technology.
Voyage on the Planet
Chih Chiu took to the streets of London with a number of people wearing his art work, positioning themselves in some of the city’s most polluted of spaces, challenging onlookers to think about what is in the air they are breathing.
Breath Control: Sounding Scape
Caroline Wright collected a single vocalised note from passersby, investigating the inhalations and exhalations that form the melody, rhythm and punctuation of our everyday existence.
Rhizome 2.0
Put on a headset and step foot into a virtual forest with Emily Godden & Audit Chaos. The artist discussed to what extent our reality is blended between the actual and virtual as we recycle digital and physical elements into a hyperreal landscapes saturated by information.
King’s College London Environmental Research Group
Audience members also took part in a series of workshops with the Environmental Research Group to find out their lung capacity, and how to avoid the polluting hotspots of London. londonair.org.uk
CleanAir bench
Airlabs’ CleanAir bench removes harmful pollutants such as nitrogen dioxide and particulate matter from the air around it, delivering clean, healthy, and breathable air to its users. The bench creates a literal space to breathe and provides users an opportunity to take a seat and give both their legs and lungs a break.
Tension in the Air
Having made its unsanctioned debut in Parliament Square, the Greenpeace-commissioned Mary Poppins installation piece was suspended above the River Terrace for the duration of the weekend as an example of impactful creative responses to the capital’s air pollution crisis.
Invited Speakers
Tessa Blazey, Director of Engagement for Tidal Lagoon Power
Elliot Treharne, Air Quality Manager at Greater London Authority
Harriet Edwards, Public Affairs and Policy Officer for The British Lung Foundation
Simon Alcock, Communications and Public Affairs Manager at ClientEarth
Creative Team
Curation and Direction: Mary Jane Edwards & Andy Franzkowiak for Shrinking Space with David Buckland for Cape Farewell
Graphics, Animation and Exhibition Design: Nestor Pestana
Exhibition Fabrication: Scott Stannard
Marketing Support: Ottilie Thornhill
Film: Chris Purchase
Photography: Kate Anderson
Project Credits
This project was inspired by the pioneering work of King’s College London’s Environmental Research Group - the leading providers of air quality data and research in the UK.
Commissioned and produced by Shrinking Space and Cape Farewell in partnership with King’s College London’s Environmental Research Group.
Supported by: Arts Council England, The Physiological Society, King’s College London Somerset House and Virtual Reality Hire.
Virtual Reality equipment kindly supplied by Virtual Reality HIRE.
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