The first performance of the first version, Feb. 2025, Berlin
Preface:
In the performance-poetry series, each poem acts as an algorithm for a performance. The poem remains incomplete and meaningless without its execution. Therefore, a poem is composed or selected specifically for performance. Words are integral to the performance, and conversely, the performance activates the words, much like a silent gene.
Inspired by yoga breathing exercises, this performance features as a long poem, a dream image, recited in 31 stages. The sequence progressively grows from a single letter to a full stanza, with each word added transforming the dream image. Each stanza must be recited in a single breath, requiring the performer to inhale more deeply as the words increase. At stage 16, the poem reaches its full length, with the most words. From this point onward, the process reverses, and the breath requirement gradually decreases until returning to the initial single letter. The diagram above illustrates these changes in breathing throughout the stages.
