Exhibition ‘Breathing' with 'Breaths–Air Bladders’
Filomena Borecka in collaboration with Bruno Dubois, 'Breaths Air Bladders', 2018, spinnaker canvas, fans, presence sensor, 180 x 120 x 80 cm, ADAGP
From 19 May to 26 June, the MFO is delighted to host a new exhibition in collaboration with the Chaire Santé-SHS at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, featuring Breaths – Air Bladders, a captivating artwork by artist-researcher Filomena Borecká. Blending art, science, and sensorial experience, the exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the shared act of breathing and our deep interconnection with the living world.
The exhibition is open to the public from Monday to Friday, 9am to 5pm, free of charge.
Please note that the opening of the exhibition will take place at the Maison Française d'Oxford at 5.30pm on Monday 19 May 2025, and will be followed by a wine and cheese.
To attend this event, please register here.
Spring 2020 marked a turning point when the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the profoundly political nature of breathing — a vital, physiological act that connects the individual body to its social and environmental context. This exhibition explores the history and meanings of breath through the lens of the social sciences and humanities, tracing how air, health, and society have been intertwined across time. It builds on the outcomes of two interdisciplinary workshops held in 2024, which brought together historians, scientists, artists, and healthcare professionals to examine respiratory knowledge, practices, and environments from the 18th to the 21st century. The exhibition also features Air Bladders, a participatory sculpture by artist Filomena Borecká, first created in 2018 and recently shown at the National Gallery in Prague.
The exhibition is curated by Judith Rainhorn and Charles-Antoine Wanecq, with the support of Camille Bourdiel, Léa Delmaire, Anne-Sophie Gabillas, Ugo Loutskévitch, Marie Thébaud-Sorger, the Centre d'histoire sociale des mondes contemporains (CHS, Paris), the Centre Alexandre Koyré (CAK, Paris) and the Maison française d’Oxford. Set design/graphics: Atelier Au fond à gauche (Lanneau/Charzat), Paris.
Filomena Borecká, artist and researcher, lives, works, and exhibits primarily in France. However, she has also created works in Prague and New York, with each place — and its specificities — leaving a distinct mark on her practice. Filomena’s artistic approach unfolds along three interwoven and complementary paths: performance, (sound) sculpture, and drawing. Her drawings, in particular, resemble seismographs, maintaining a continuous dialogue with their surroundings. Her body of work bears the imprint not only of places (Transmigration Paris–Prague, New York) and nature (Méristèmes), but also of the people she has encountered. These individuals have played a role in shaping her work, notably through recordings of their breath, which Filomena incorporated into her spatial sound constellation Spouts and the participatory sound sculpture Phrenos – The Bank of Breath.
Borecká has exhibited her work at the National Gallery in Prague, CACLB in Luxembourg, Círculo de Bellas Artes in Madrid, Queens College Art Centre in New York, and elsewhere.
About Breaths–Air Bladders:
For several years, Filomena Borecká has developed artistic proposals that invite a connection with others and offer the possibility to pause and take a breath, to reflect on what keeps us alive: the invisible air. In the presence of a viewer, the Bladders come alive, filling with air. The artist draws here on a childhood memory: while preparing carp on Christmas Eve, she recalls seeing two irregular air-bladders — organs that help the fish float and, in a child’s imagination, represent its “soul.” Breaths – Air Bladders was co-created in collaboration with set designer Bruno Dubois. The material used is the recycled spinnaker of an old hot-air balloon — a fabric that had travelled through the Earth's atmosphere and bears the marks of its many journeys. Breathes – Air Bladders engages with breath both literally and metaphorically, seeking to explore our relationship with ourselves, with one another, and with the living world as an expression of both natural and spiritual reality. The artwork captures breath and its movement — fundamental signs of life, alongside the heartbeat. Emotions and sensations associated with breathing constantly evolve, like the wind that blows. Through her artworks, Filomena seeks to offer the possibility of becoming aware of our breath and of our interdependence within the environment we inhabit, breathe, and share.
To find out more about Filomena Borecká's work, please watch the video 'Phrenos – BANK OF BREATH | Filomena Borecká: Breath of Silent Thoughts'.
