“Rebreathing,” a work to heal the breath at the Pitié-Salpêtrière, in Paris

Can a work of art raise awareness of this vital function of breathing, help people understand what lung patients experience and offer them relief? This is the ambition of the astonishing Réespiration project, designed by the artist Samuel Bianchini, in collaboration with the pulmonologist Thomas Similowski and the team of caregivers from the R3S (respiration, resuscitation, rehabilitation and sleep) department of the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris.

The installation will be on display in the Gosset building of the AP-HP establishment on Saturday, June 7, as part of Nuit Blanche 2025. It will then be exhibited in the hospital chapel this summer, before returning to the pulmonology department, where it is the subject of a scientific study, including healthy volunteers and patients with chronic lung disease.

To experience this interactive device, visitors are invited to sit in front of a 1.70-meter-diameter satellite dish. There, an object resembling a torso, covered in embroidery that plays with light, deforms as if breathing, then subtly adjusts to the rhythm of the person facing it, who then attempts to slow down. The immersion is completed by sound effects, a mixture of inhalations, exhalations, and music, reflected by the satellite dish.

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