The program section dedicated to installations also addresses the connection between art and human activities and ecology, sustainability and natural processes in general through the performance/installation by artist Branimir Štivić entitled M I J E H. This modular air system, based on expiration, inflation and collision of air with objects in space, uses the human exhale product (carbon dioxide) as a means to establish a unique rhythm of its own breathing and thus contributes to the discussions about sustainability in nature and art. By realizing this performance with the exhaling human bodies, in the space of a solitary existence, Štivić’s mijeh (bellows) questions the relationship between the body and the atmosphere, the “internal” and “external” space, on the skin’s edge acting as a dividing membrane.
Made of an air turbine, synthetic fabric, giant reed, customized electronics/mechanics/software and breathing bodies, the bellows uses the reed’s natural characteristics to produce sound from the air that circulates through its air chambers from the tank. This "primitive prosthesis" finally lends voice to a self-sufficient system, a container which evokes the human intestines, stomach and other cavities with some biological function as a metaphor of an intelligent, adaptive and continuous life force.
The performance that is part of this year’s MBZ will take place in the Sljeme Tunnel – a monolithic conductive system whose air dynamics and acoustic characteristics will provoke the possibilities of Štivić’s installation, intensifying the contextuality of the concept surrounding it.
The installation program was curated by the visual artist Sara Salamon.
This piece was produced during residency training at KONTEJNER, as part of the international project Re-Imagine Europe, while the initial research was mentored by Nicole Hewitt at OZAFIN.