Yingmei Duan / Luigi Coppola
Atti democratici
BREATH IN, BREATH OUT

Breath in, Breath out is a performance about the moral, religious, familiar and legal rules and roles by which we have to live and act. The needful explanation by the two performers of a 'declaration of liberty' corresponds to a series of incidents hindering successful communication.

Yingmei Duan, born in 1969 in China, is a performer and creator of installations and videos. She belongs to the Chinese avant-garde, active in the Nineties in the East Village of Beijing. In '95 she took part in the historical performance To add one meter to an anonymous mountain. In order to develop her artistic experience she moved to Germany in '98. In 2006 she finished a specialisation Master at the Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste of Braunschweig under Marina Abramovic, Birgit Hein and Christoph Schlingensief. Since 1993 she has taken part in many festivals, exhibitions and workshops, among which the Braziers International Artists Workshop in England and the 1st Performance festival of Salzau 2005. She is part of the IPG (Independent Performance Group) directed by Marina Abramovic, with which she has performed in many international contexts such as the PAC of Milan (2003), the Van Gogh Museum of Amsterdam (2005) and the Venice Biennale (2007). Her performances, as well as her installations and videos, focus on aspects of daily life, memories, fears and dreams.

Luigi Coppola
Performer and director of physical theatrical, he has scientific training in engineering and artistic training in the performing arts and multimedia. He has directed the Blusuolo group and is at present head of the research group on the performing arts LOSS - Laboratorio operativo sistemi sensibili, with whom he has produced theatrical pièces, performances and videos that have appeared in numerous festivals and reviews, among others the San Francisco International Arts Festival, Wunder der Prärie (Mannheim), Unidram Festival (Potsdam) and the Athens Biennial of Young Artists. He has also been artist in residence at various international institutions such as Hweilan International Artists Residence of Taiwan, Taipei Artists Village of Taipei, PAF (Performing Arts Forum of Saint Erme in France, CESTA  Cultural Exchange Station of Tábor (Czech Republic).