The Oldest Breath You'll Ever Take
Breathe is a groundbreaking permanent installation by French-Swiss artist Julian Charrière, created for the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA) in Hobart, Tasmania.
The work offers visitors a rare opportunity to inhale oxygen that has been trapped within ancient iron ore for approximately 2.4 billion years, dating back to the Great Oxidation Event, a pivotal period when oxygen first began accumulating in Earth's atmosphere and made complex life possible.
To realize the project, Charrière sourced banded iron ore from the Pilbara region of Western Australia. In an on-site laboratory, water is extracted from the ore and processed using a Hofmann apparatus, which separates oxygen through electrolysis. The resulting oxygen is released into a specially designed chamber where visitors can breathe it for the first time since it became trapped billions of years ago.
The installation is designed as an intimate, individual experience. Visitors travel alone through a tunnel-like passage resembling a mining drift, lined with Pilbara rock formations, before entering a dramatic cylindrical chamber that houses the oxygen-generating apparatus. The architecture, lighting, and materials reinforce the feeling of descending through geological time, transforming scientific history into a physical and emotional encounter.
Charrière describes the artwork as a “time machine,” connecting participants directly to the origins of life on Earth. By breathing oxygen that no living being has previously inhaled, visitors become part of the artwork itself. As the artist notes, the oxygen remains within their bodies throughout their lives, creating a lasting connection between the individual, deep geological history, and the evolution of life on our planet.
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