Breath, 2023

Maurizio Cattelan

Narrator: A man and a dog lie on the ground facing each other. A subtle interplay of two species meeting on the same level.
 
Both were sculpted in the finest white Carrara marble, a material that brings to mind Renaissance masters such as Michelangelo or the Baroque sculptor Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini.
 
But “Breath” has a different kind of monumentality, a serenity in the air between the two bodies. If they could breathe, as the title suggests, their exhalations would mix in that space, return to their lungs and unite them.
 
Here, in a seemingly sleeping or unconscious state, the power balance between man and beast is evened out, and the two become one. They appear to be at the mercy of their surroundings, yet rest in the safety of protecting each other.
 
Dogs have a symbolic meaning in many cultures all over the world. In addition to being famously loyal, they feature in mythology as guides between the worlds of the living and the dead.
 
Cattelan has often portrayed both humans and animals, but this is his first work where they meet.