Giornate del Respiro - Breath Days

Giornate del Respiro (Breathe Days) is a performing arts and environmental activities festival led by Sardegna Teatro, born in Fluminimaggiore - Sardinia - in 2020 from a reflection on the pandemic social and arts impact. The very main cause to inhabit this place is its mine site past that made Fluminimaggiore a well-informed place about breath and breath disease. The deprivation of shared spaces of action together with the fatally repressed breaths determined the necessity of finding a new context of encounter both for artists and audiences. Breath is an element that makes life possible and connects the living: the oxygen inhaled by humans and animals is nothing more than plants' waste. In addition, the movement of the breath connects organisms with the outside, in a continuous and generative dynamic, which must be taken care of. GdR intends to restore contact between the world of art and that of nature and its living beings, creating opportunities for meeting with all segments of the population; opening to residences so that artists can get to know the community, listen to its stories, and characters, draw inspiration and return the joy of sharing live shows. GdR is also a site-specific festival, in which artists and communities work together, increasing the sense of responsibility and care for the place.

This coincidence led to the choice of this small village to propose performances, workshops, talks, and naturalistic activities in an outdoor festival aiming to be part of the environment again; where the artists show site-specific works modelled by the confrontation with the communities and the territory. The festival focuses on the importance of legacies. In the first edition of the festival a previous cultural centre, underused by the community, has been turned into a theatre returned to the population as a renewed space, Teatro del Respiro. The second edition gifted the population with a wall painting by the international artist Tellas: a personal and intimate vision of the elements of the natural landscape.

An important contribution to the work of artists is acknowledged by the local associations, the participatory practices offered to the audience rely on people who share their multiple experiences put at the artists’ service. Moreover, the association activities are comprised in the general programme of the festival and go under the name “affiatati – bonded” to underline the deep-rooted connections with both the territory and its inhabitants.