BREATH PORTRAITS URUGUAY (2018)

In the frame of a Pro Helvetia COINCIDENCIA residency in Montevideo in November/December 2018 I got to

• further develop my breath portraits research by facilitating one-on-one encounters with 9 Uruguayan artists.
• show the existing series of breath portraits shot in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in an ongoing video exhibition at GEN Centro de Artes y Ciencias, Montevideo.
• continue working on my danced breath self-portrait, present it in a public showing at INAE and get valuable feedback from a local audience.
• engage in an exchange and collaboration with the Uruguayan artist Marcos Ramírez Harriague based on the theme of men and touch. A first choreographic investigation of this theme was presented in combination with my self portrait in the public showing at INAE.

one-on-one encounters with 9 Uruguayan artists
Through an open call and through word-of-mouth I set up 9 one-on-one encounters. These individual encounters consisted in me sharing some exercises and tools of my breath practice (warm-up), sometimes included a shared improvisation session with a specific breath task and (if the artist was open to it) concluded in a video-portrait: Each artist brought a song with a strong personal and emotional connection, which I asked them to listen to and breathe in Karaoke-style while I recorded a close-up headshot of them.

Breath Portraits Uruguay Ruth Ferrari, Marcos Ramírez Harriague, Juan Landarín, Cecilia Lussheimer, Santiago Marrero, Laura Pirotto, Maxi Sonderegger, Viviana Verdesio, Katherine Montes.

In between the one-on-one encounters and rehearsals with Marcos, I managed to spend some time working on the self portrait nearly every day. The solo was shown in a public presentation at Instituto Nacional de Artes Escénicas on December 7th.

concept & performance self portrait Chris Leuenberger choreographic & dramaturgical collaboration Jenny Beyer, Marcos Ramírez Harriague music Jetzmann

supported by COINCIDENCIA intercambios culturales Suiza – América del Sur, un programa de Pro Helvetia – fundación suiza para la cultura, Casa Almargen – apuesta artístico terapéutica, INAE – Instituto Nacional de Artes Escénicas, GEN – centro de artes y ciencias, IFES – Instituto de formación en educación social.