Exhale your worries away at Breathing Pavilion in Brooklyn.
After a difficult year it’s important to simply take some deep breaths. Ekene Ijeoma’s newest installation Breathing Pavilion at The Plaza at 300 Ashland in Brooklyn is a public reminder to do just that.
The installation is a part of Van Alen Institute’s Public Realm R&D program working to highlight emerging artists and unite people through public spaces.
Breathing Pavilion “creates a public space of reprieve during this time of intense hardship and loss,” said Van Alen. Visitors are “invited to enter the pavilion and breathe in time with the changing light for a moment of communal meditation.”
A 30-foot circle comprised of 20 illuminated inflatable columns, each nine feet in height, take over the plaza. The columns are designed to bring calm as their slow change in brightness represents a deep breathing technique.
The installation was created in response to the pandemic and systemic racial injustice in the United States. It is meant to offer a sanctuary and safe space that “suggests a paradigm shift towards communion and meditative stillness, and creates an accessible space of reprieve when the act of breathing itself is under siege.”
Artist Ekene Ijeoma talked about the struggles of 2020 including the pandemic, racial injustices and political movements. “I held my breath for most of last year…It will still take some time before we see large-scale change. Until then, in these next few weeks, this pavilion is here to invite the public to breathe into the change within each of us, in sync with one another,” said Ijeoma.
The installation will be accessible through May 11, 2020. Visitors are not allowed to touch the inflatables, but are encouraged to stroll in and out of the columns.
Make sure to share your photos with the tag #BreathingPavilion on social media!
Located: The Plaza at 300 Ashland, Brooklyn, NY
featured image source: Breathing Pavilion, Ekene Ijeoma (2021). Co-produced by Van Alen Institute and the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership. Photo: Kris Graves