Youngsook Choi and Sophie Seita – Scales of Breathing

Artists Youngsook Choi and Sophie Seita have been developing scores for movements, gestures, sound-making, and listening, in relation to the eco-intelligence of more-than-human species. As part of this long-term exploration, the participatory performance Scales of Breathing stages experimental breathing gestures that imagine interspecies collaboration, inspired by the earthworms’ soil works with microbial species and strategic diapause (suspended engagement) when the soil environment is malnourishing.

With the joint forces of choreographer Jaelee Kim and sound artist and poet Rike Scheffler, the work-in-progress performance was presented at the Seoul Museum of Art, curated by Sungmin Lim last November, and the first full iteration will be presented at LADA.

Under the overarching ethics of decolonial and queer ecology, this participatory performance forges new embodied sensibilities in cooperation and reciprocity. It is materialised through composting gestures, poetic instructions, sound and rhythm, light sensitivity, humidity, active pauses, and collective enquiries, developing what they frame as ‘eco-literacy’.

Original commission by Seoul Museum of Art, Korea, with additional support from Goethe Institute and Goldsmiths University of London.