PNEUMA – Wärmezeitmaschine
Long-durational performance (90 hours).
Museum Schloss Moyland, July 22–August 3, and August 10, 2025.
Part of the exhibition Marina Abramović and MAI in Dialogue with Joseph Beuys.
Curated by Serge Le Borgne, Billy Zhao, and Antje-Britt Mählmann.
Pneuma – Wärmezeitmaschine is an immersive, participatory performance that places breath at its centre – as a primal force of life, a collective bond, and a political symbol. The performer inhabits a resonating space in which his breath is acoustically amplified. Visitors are invited to become part of this sonic fabric through their own breathing. In this way, a living interplay of sounds, rhythms, resonances and bodies emerges – an acoustic sculpture, a breathing collective.
Pneuma means both “breath” and “soul” in Greek. The performance reflects on breath as a carrier of identity, a communicative potential, and a mirror of the macrocosm. Breath is as essential to our life as it is fragile – it can be hindered or suppressed, as demonstrated by pandemics or methods of violence and oppression.Inspired by Joseph Beuys’ participatory art concepts and his “energy plan” as well as by the breathing practices of the Marina Abramović Method, the project sees itself as an artistic-social experiment, a sensual and political invitation to attend to breath as a “primordial sound”, the most reduced form of togetherness, and the most elemental form of relating to the world.
Inspired by Joseph Beuys’ participatory art concepts and his “energy plan” as well as by the breathing practices of the Marina Abramović Method, the project sees itself as an artistic-social experiment, a sensual and political invitation to attend to breath as a “primordial sound”, the most reduced form of togetherness, and the most elemental form of relating to the world.
Photos by Philip Yakushin and Kirsten Becken | Video: Philip Yakushin | Editing: Francesco Marzano | Acoustic designer: Tini Aliman | Sound engineering realisation and installation: Marco van Heys
Further documentation: Longer video documentation | Sound collage
The performance was part of the exhibition Marina Abramović and MAI in dialogue with Joseph Beuys, which took place at Museum Schloss Moyland from July 13 to October 26, 2025, and was later extended until January 11, 2026.
The live performances took place during the first month of the exhibition, from July 13 to August 10, 2025. The participating performance artists were: Isaac Chong Wai (Hong Kong/Germany), Cristiana Cott Negoescu (Romania/Germany), Maria Stamenković Herranz (Serbia/Spain/France), Sandra Johnston (Ireland), Rubiane Maia (Brazil/UK), Francesco Marzano (Italy/Germany), Virginia Mastrogiannaki (Greece), Michelle Samba (Friesland, Netherlands/Congo), Luisa Sancho-Escanero (Spain/Germany), Evan Macrae Williams (Canada/Germany), Yan Jun Chin (Malaysia/Germany), Martin Toloku (Ghana/Netherlands) and Eşref Yıldırım (Turkey).
The exhibition emerged from a one-month residency at Museum Schloss Moyland and ArToll Kunstlabor in March 2025, during which we engaged with the works and thought of Joseph Beuys.
