12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art

Somewhere between Kurdistan and Ile de la Réunion

This sound work is part of the podcast series Museum of Breath.

With: Sulti (storytelling and manifesto); Françoise Vergès (storytelling and lecture); Olivier Marboeuf (composition, poems, recordings); Victor Donati (recordings, editing, sound design); Blessing Tony and Shela Sheikh (voices)

Françoise Vergès reads a fragment of the poem Vali pour une reine morte by Boris Gamaleya (1973).

 

The refuge is the breath

Can you hear my breath

when I can run

finally

Far away

Far away

With nothing to stop me

The refuge is in my breath

Taste it

It is my orange breath

that fell into the sea

It is my blue breath

that flees the dogs’ teeth

Can you hear it?

Golden breath without sleep

My snake-refuge

My sea-refuge

My barbed wire-refuge

Pass the fence

Pass the hill

Maybe it’s a mountain

Pass the green and wet wood of my breath

Passes the hard border of the water

Pass beyond death

Then you can sleep

The refuge is in your palm

warmed by the sun

Between your hand

and another hand

Pass the fresh air

and the loved faces

Pass the highway

Pass the wall

Pass the checkpoint

Pass under the gaze

Enter the sleep

It’s here

And the friendly voices are here

come