The felt work Inhale is a tribute to the Idrija miners – individuals who risked their lives every day working in dark tunnels. For five centuries, they mined mercury in Idrija. Every morning, they gathered at the roll-call station, where they were given a numbered metal tag. At the end of the shift, they returned the number – if they made it back. "Srečno" (Good luck) was written above the entrance to the mine.
Floating felt forms hanging by threads symbolize the fragility and vulnerability of the miners' lives. Their daily exposure to risk, pain, and the invisible effects of toxic ore is captured in these wool structures. Each form is like a cocoon – a form of protection, and at the same time, a symbol of the tension between life and death. Some cocoons are "on," like flames that still burn. Others remain dark – a silent memory of those who never returned to the surface, who never inhaled in fresh air again.
Inhale is not just an echo of the past, but also a reflection on the value of human life – on the bodily memory that imprints itself into space and matter.
Imagine the moment when, after a long, exhausting day of mining, they were returning from the tunnel and took a cautious, slow, deep breath of the air that is not veiled by the dust of ore, but instead gives life itself.
Inhale.
photo: Maša Pirc