I Poetics of Textual and Bodily Breath

Tsarino, Bulgaria | September 2024

Reading and Listening Groups in the outdoor kitchen and woods

We disorientate through repetitive performances.
We reorientate through textual breath.
This is our shared “poetics of breathing”:
Reading aloud in the air,
Listening with our bodies.

Overview
During a rural artist residency in Tsarino, Bulgaria, I facilitated a week-long series of breath-led reading and listening groups situated in the outdoor kitchen, along woodland paths, and beside firelight under the stars. The gatherings wove together transgenerational memory, poetic utterance, and embodied presence, inviting collaborators into a shared “poetics of breathing.”

Each session became a site of attunement, where we listened not only to texts but to silence, rhythm, and one another. We read aloud in the open air, spoke into the dusk, and let the wind and wildlife carry our words.

Participatory Framework
Collaborators were invited to introduce themselves not through formal presentations but through:
– quotes
– poems
– stories
– songs
– word collections
– bodily rememberings
– dreams and images

These offerings became communal traces,

fragments suspended in the shared air between us.
We listened.
We breathed.
We felt.

 
Participant Reflection – Hetty, Tsarino Residency

”We went into the dark, to a beautiful place between the trees. There was a mysterious, square, deserted tower. Next to it, we made a fire and sat around it as a group.

What I liked most was the atmosphere created by the fire and the darkness—everyone was deeply focused, and for a short time, it felt as if nothing else existed.

We read our texts and told our stories in different languages. Everyone participated in their own way.

It was a wonderful experience!
— Hetty, Tsarino Art Residency
 
During her stay, Marie Theresa organised two events within nature—both held in the dark. Everyone was invited to share memories, thoughts, or personal stories in response to the setting she created.

It was surprising and fun to hear what came up and to have this experience together.
— Terry Vreeburg, Tsarino Art Residency

Tsarino Textual Breath | 23 September - November 2024

The listening and reading groups in Tsarino culminated in a communal exhibition at the Razklon Gallery, located on site in Tsarino, Bulgaria. Local collaborators and visiting international artists and volunteers contributed handwritten fragments—each chosen for its resonance and lasting impact beyond the sessions. These texts were encased in a glass box and suspended in the mountain air, leaving lasting traces of our words amid the mountains, with cows, wildlife, and the rugged terrain standing as silent witnesses.

I listened to special, personal stories and thoughts from all who were sitting together around the fire. This memory has stayed with me.
— Minà Minov, Bulgarian Artist