APNEA-Zwanneï Collective
APNEA is a performance ( body, electronic music , projection )Apnea or suspension of external breathing (Greek: απνοια, from α-, privative, πνεειν, to breathe) and its variations by strangulation fit into history, literature and cinema in these elitist or popular forms. Free diving ( Le Grand Bleu, The Dive) voluntary suffocation or fainting experiences of childhood games ( choking games named “ Lacet étrangleur” (garotte) , “lung game”, “marvelous night”, “Indian Summer” , “cosmos” …) erotic asphyxiation practices, “scarfing “or “head rush” ( Kenpark) , all these experiences imply the possibility of knowing symbolic or physical abilities alteration, a quest for ecstasy , of sublime experience, of hallucinations, of symbolic or real games with death and the permanent inference of a NDE, a near death experience that would project, even for a short moment, the consciousness out of the body:
The aim of the “I” is to have access to a certain kind of transcendence which once consciousness is thrown out of the body, makes it wander into a universe from which an ineffable brightness is shining , makes it meet unspeakable worlds and characters ( …) all this with the feeling of unimaginable happiness the duration of which seems infinite and with a realism as lively if not more lively than our everyday life.” ( Daniel Maurer)