‘Everything brings us back to the body’, writes Achille Mbembe in his 2020 essay *The Universal Right to Breathe*, in response to the first Covid lockdowns. That same year, Ehsan Hemat began work on his new performance. In it, he explores what the human body is capable of using an 18-kilo copper plate. Inspired by the poetry of Rumi and the Gaia theory, Ehsan experiments with reflection and echo. The result is a duet between the human and the non-human as equal partners.
The performance unfolds as a dialogue between the body and the core of the earth, using movement, sound and voice to explore both intimacy and resistance. Beneath the beautiful imagery lies a deeper message: a confrontation with a past of exploitation, ecological disruption and the universal right to breathe.
Achille Mbembe is a leading Cameroonian philosopher and historian, known for his work on postcolonialism and African philosophy. His emphasis on the central role of the body during the pandemic highlights the embodied experience of illness, isolation and resilience.
Rumi was a 13th-century Persian poet, mystic and theologian, whose work explores themes such as love, spirituality and the interconnectedness of all beings.
The Gaia theory is a scientific hypothesis that regards the Earth as a self-regulating system of living organisms and their physical
