Breathing Underwater

Some materials carry more than form. They carry memory.

Breathing Underwater invites us not only to wear fragments of an imagined water, but to dive into the depths of long-lost rivers, where memory rewinds through togetherness.

Born from Hera Büyüktaşcıyan’s works My Eye’s Pupil Is Your Nest (2021) and Who Speaks from the Dust, Who Looks from the Clay (2023), the blue net that once traced forgotten waterways between Prizren and Prishtina continues its journey.

Preserved with care after the Autostrada Biennale, it has been transformed through an initiative by Vatra Abrashi, in collaboration with Pezull, into wearable forms that carry within their folds stories of disappearance, remembrance, and renewal.

With sensitivity, imagination, and care, Pezull embraced the material’s previous life and transformed it into garments that honor both its past and its future, allowing memory itself to be worn, carried, and passed on.

Like water itself, the material changes form but never loses its essence.

As part of this ongoing journey, we are pleased to keep the exhibition Breathing Underwater open to the public every day, from Monday to Friday, from 12:00 to 15:00, at Autostrada Hangar II.

We warmly invite you to visit the exhibition, experience the video installation, and witness a collaboration rooted in sustainability, care, and transformation, where art does not end with an exhibition, but continues to flow through new forms, new bodies, and new memories.

All garments presented in the exhibition are available for purchase. By bringing one home, you become part of this continuing journey, carrying with you the traces of rivers, memories, and the beauty of giving both materials and stories a new life.

Image Credits:
1–13: Breathing Underwater, photographs by Elmedina Arapi
14–18: Drawings by Hera Büyüktaşcıyan
19: My Eye’s Pupil Is Your Nest (2021), installation view, 3rd Autostrada Biennale
20: Who Speaks from the Dust, Who Looks from the Clay (2023), installation view, 4th Autostrada Biennale, Prishtina. Photographs by Tuğhan Anıt.