Part of the photo exhibition “Where I Breathe”: Thomas Klingberg – Fred from Ghana. *Where I breathe, I want to be at home.* Berlin, 2022. Taken during the Corona pandemic in emergency accommodation. A photographic and artistic commentary on belonging, isolation, and the need for a home – between the experience of the pandemic and the feeling of estrangement.
Where I Breathe: 12 Artists Present Photographic Works at BBK Kunstforum
The exhibition *Where I Breathe* opens on October 30, 2025, at the BBK Kunstforum Düsseldorf and features photographic works by twelve artists, offering diverse perspectives on breath and vitality in photographic representation. The works address the flood of digital images, illusions, and AI-generated humans, exploring the difference between photographs of people who truly breathe and those who have never lived. The exhibition is complemented by a performance by Jessica Scheulen, artistically interpreting the theme of breath.
Participating artists: Monika Bock, Eyal Dinar, Barbara Freundlieb, Michelle Gallagher, Lidia B. Gordon, Agii Gosse, Alexander von Goch, Thomas Klingberg, Layla Reg, Marcus Schmitz, Anna Nwaada Weber, and Linge Xiao.
*Where I Breathe* is on view from October 30 to November 16, 2025, Fridays from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM and Saturdays and Sundays from 3:00 PM to 6:00 PM at the BBK Kunstforum Düsseldorf, Birkenstraße 47 (rear courtyard). Admission is free.
For this exhibition, I will present four photographs, deliberately reinterpreting the title “Where I Breathe” in an artistic way. I want to pose the question: “Where do I breathe?” — a central question for my social documentary work, because I focus my camera exactly where people breathe.
My photographs depict people in challenging life situations and create a space in which they can become visible. At the same time, a resonance space emerges for me: where they breathe, I breathe as well. “Where I Breathe” for me does not only signify an artistic or intellectual construct, but tangible life — breaths that reveal how people exist and assert themselves in all their reality.
While photographing, I repeatedly ask myself: What would it be like to have to breathe in this situation myself, without being able to return to my own comfort zone? This reflection transforms the “I” in the exhibition title into a “We” — a shared humanity that connects us, regardless of our life circumstances.
The guiding question, “Where do I breathe?” also addresses the visitors. As they move through the space of the images, they encounter photographs of people whose breath is shaped by dust, confinement, loneliness, and cold. A silent dialogue emerges: what does it mean to breathe at the same time — and yet live in such different worlds?
This article was posted on September 27, 2025