Two Exhibitions: Inflatables and The Art of Care

• This blog post describes two visits to exhibitions: one at the British Academy, and the other at Science Gallery London. 
• At the British Academy, Jamie and Grace were excited to find a piece of art that used a ventilator. 
• At Science Gallery London, Jamie and Grace saw a creative exhibition by medical students. 
• Both exhibitions were interesting and useful in different ways. 

Choreographing Inflatables

We, Jamie and Grace, have recently visited two London exhibitions together: exhibitions that connect with Cripping Breath’s themes in quite different ways. The first was the British Academy Ideas Festival LATE, on Friday 19th June. Our first observation was that the wheelchair access was somewhat challenging, but the exhibition itself intrigued us. We’d attended specifically to visit the Choreographing Inflatables: Place, Politics, Performance section. We were curious based on the title alone – amongst other inflatables, we discovered Bambí Benkö’s powerful Mirror Barricade/Barricade Ballet (2016) – but we’d been drawn particularly by a piece we’d read was inspired by Breathing In/Breathing Out (1977), a performance by Marina Abramović and Ulay. We were not disappointed. From across the room, we spotted IV stands and a hospital trolley, and were reminded of Amanda Cachia’s ‘hospital aesthetics’ (2025). And, as we moved closer, we were astonished to find a ventilator. 

The piece is called ‘souffle-à-souffle’, which translates as ‘breath-by-breath’, an artistic project by a team of scientists, engineers, and artists based in Paris (full credits below). ‘Souffle-à-souffle’ uses (parts of) a ventilator to animate two objects, ‘breathing’ in concert. Marina Möller, one of the creators, was there at the exhibition; Marina took some time to explain the project to us, and we have since connected with the wider team. Here’s their description of the piece:

Two curved geometric forms, measuring a few inches, face one another. Initially flat and two-dimensional, they deform into harmonious, equally geometric volumes. Their deformation evolves according to a pneumatic system, driven by the air supplied by an artificial respirator exhibited alongside them. This machine, which normally sustains human life, now animates these objects which, as they deform, tend to complement one another, as if aspiring to become a single shape. Their dynamics are indeed those of a respiration, variable and uncertain, embodying the asynchrony of these forms.

We were thrilled to find ventilation featuring so prominently in an exhibition about inflatables ‘[f]rom moon landings to protest movements’ (Kolb, McCormack and Shaw, exhibition materials). Often, we find that cultural representations of breath and air conceive of breathing as physically unassisted – connected to atmospheres, health, and environment, rather than breathing machines. 

The Art of Care

Next, on Friday 3rd July, we visited an exhibition called The Art of Care: Through the Eyes of Tomorrow’s Doctors at Science Gallery London. The exhibition presents artworks created by teams of second-year medical students, supported by clinicians and artists, and produced during their year-long placements at GP surgeries. We both found the exhibition striking; the students seemed, by and large, to be creatively rendering the experiences of the populations they observed – including people at my (Jamie’s) own surgery. In that way it was fascinating – for what it said about what medical professionals were thinking, or striving to learn. 

We’d actually anticipated learning more about the experiences of medical students themselves, as they embarked upon professional training in potentially difficult or complicated settings. We’d expected, in other words, a more relational approach, which takes into account the singular perception and personhood of the observer – here, the medic-artist – when encountering patient experiences. Instead, we wondered whether medical students are encouraged towards a firm distinction between patient and clinician in their training: a dividing line that Cripping Breath seeks to disrupt. 

Though it wasn’t quite what we were expecting, the exhibition turned out to be fantastically useful to us: especially as we consider how to communicate co-produced arts-based research, centring lived experience, to clinical audiences. We’ve found that sometimes there’s a barrier to understanding what it is we do, and what it is we want to achieve on the Arts Stream. This insight about how differently creative practice might be angled in a medical context – as a way to get to grips with the ‘other’, and cultivate empathy, rather than represent some aspect of one’s own experience – will surely help us to communicate our project to diverse audiences. And this is so very important to Cripping Breath. 

The exhibition is free of charge and runs until Friday 31st July, 2026.

‘souffle-à-souffle’ Credits

An artistic project by Samuel Bianchini (EnsadLab, École des Arts Décoratifs - PSL), in collaboration with Marina Möller, based on the scientific research of José Bico, Étienne Reyssat, and Benoît Roman from the Laboratoire Physique et Mécanique des Milieux Hétérogènes (PMMH) - CNRS - ESPCI Université PSL / Sorbonne Université / Université de Paris. 

Software engineering: Philippe Gauthier from the Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique (Isir - Sorbonne Université) and Aurore Billant.

With thanks to Thomas Similowski and the company Löwenstein Medical France.