When You Whistle, It Makes Air Come Out, 2019

installation view, University at Buffalo Art Galleries, Buffalo, New York, 2023, photograph: Biff Henrich/IMG-INK

installation view, Bruges Triennial, 2021

installation view, Bozar, Brussels, 2020

exhibition view, Bozar, Brussels, 2020 with “Sideshow” on the right

installation view, Bozar, Brussels, 2020, with the right and “Sideshow” in the background on the right

exhibition view, Bozar, Brussels, 2020, with “Echo’s Bones/Were Turned to Stone” on the right and “Sideshow” in the background on the right.

exhibition view, Bozar, Brussels, 2020, with “Echo’s Bones/Were Turned to Stone” on the right and “Sideshow” in the background

installation view, MUAC, Mexico City, 2021

17 more images

This cinematic installation, which includes the sound of breathing, is inspired by a chapter from The Child’s Conception of Physical Causality (1927), a book by Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget, which is filled with creative experimental ideas for probing into the most sophisticated ways of thinking in children of various ages.

Ana Torfs was especially interested in the section that deals with children’s precausal explanations of the origins of wind and of breath. The answers they give to questions as: ‘Where does the wind come from’, ‘What happens when you blow’, ‘Why does one breath’, ‘Where does the air in your mouth come from’ are both innocent and surprising. She slid their response letter by letter into the strips of a light box and edited the filmed sentences to the rhythm of her breathing.

HD projection (16:9) custom made wooden screen on a tripod, colour, sound, loudspeaker on a tripod, 7’30”, loop

This work can be shown as a diptych with The Shadow is Black and in the Darkness It Can’t Show, on the rearside of the same freestanding screen. When this work is presented without its counterpart, it should be shown on a 55 inch thin bezel led screen, on a tripod.

Produced by vzw NN

This work is part of the collection of:
Museum M, Leuven (BE)