Marking Breath is a work that needs to be understood as the fruit of long years of Buddhist practice, meditation, and yoga. Throughout her life, Sophie Dupont has sought to assimilate and internalize a way of thinking that engages all levels of her being. It is a personal approach, an intimate experience that she shares with us today in her humble and profound work. With this work, she invites the visitor to make an inner journey. A plunge into the secret mysteries of being. For Sophie Dupont, it is not a matter of translating a form of the great beyond. Nor is it a matter of simply producing a message or work from dogmatic speech. She rather seeks to perceive the music of the world. It is, therefore, from the angle of the intimate confidence and the sharing that this work should be understood. For the simple reason that the ensemble constituting Marking Breath crosses, at different points of reference, the existential, the temporal, and the geographical.Sophie Dupont’s approach encourages us to consider life in the light of our breath, for only this awareness – of our body and mind – gives, according to the artist, meaning to our existence. The breath that we all share is natural and unconscious and gives rhythm to life. Respiration inhabits the human body; it sets it in motion. It is an infinite to- and-from movement. It is also a link between interiority and exteriority. With each inhalation, man absorbs his external environment. With each expiration, man releases his inner environment to the exterior. Outside becomes inside and vice versa. Respiration links man to his environment, but it also links the body to the mind. Body respiration. Psychic breathing. The unity of body and mind becomes, by breathing, a tangible reality. An indivisible whole. A consciousness where everything is present. Extract from text by Mouna Mekouar
Photos by Ella Weber
The Mind Marking Breath
Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge, Brooklyn Bridge;
Windy Sunrise
The sunbeams shimmers on the surface of the water
I inhale Silver lines,
I exhale silver lines
I breathe the bridge
Marking my breath; Breathing
Copper Connections
Transitions
I am walking
Runners’ trains
Walking marking breath
Sunbeams
Blue sky
Fresh wind
Silver lines – Silver lines
Water scapes between Brooklyn and Manhattan
Morning Rush Hour – people, people, people
I breathe
City Hall, Wall Street……
Hierarchies, hierarchies
Money street, power street
Walking Wall Street
Can we delete?
Breathing, marking breath
In the boat on the surface of the water
Muh-he-kun-ne-tuk transformed to Hudson River,
The Statue of Liberty on Liberty Island
Is Freedom this impressive, neoclassical, colossal sculpture?
Is Freedom a woman made by a man and a gift from France to the United States?
Copper Connections, Power Connections
Copper Connections, Power Connections
Silver Lines
Silver Lines
Blue skies, few clouds, Fresh wind
People everywhere, rats, cockroaches
Travelers, travelers, travelers: Exploring
meetings’, conversations
Inhalations exhalations
I breathe focusing as best I can at my act
Watching concrete, spaces, streets
China Town
The smell of Chinese food
Delicious, interesting
I mark, I breathe
Trying not to bump into someone
Canal Street
Dark Orange
The subway
The sounds of trains
The smell of underground
More or less
Breathing, observing and feeling the atmosphere
Union Square, November walk, November dance
Dance Space – dance classes
Trisha Brown, Alvin Ailey, Martha Graham, Poul Taylor,
I am breathing my smile
I am present in my smile
Always changing
Always moving
Grand Central
A fix point,
A transition
Peoples stressful energy, rushing to trains,
Being late, being late…..
Always being late
Time time time
Presence: On time
I am always a little behind
I am present in my smile,
Human nature
Modern human beings
Darkness and crowdedness in the subway: Rush hour
Uptown,
Up to the park
Up to nature
A pedestrian crossing
The big boulevards
Nature and buildings are reflected in the copper
Copper connections
Copper connections
Trees, concrete, brick’s and flowers
The afternoon sun
I walk down the avenue facing Empire State Building
The sun
It’s setting
Watching the full Manhattan
The colors rapidly change
Yellow, orange, purple
An ocean of fire
Of energy
The sun set behind the big apple