Podykh is a multimedia installation that examines breathing as an extension of the body and as an interface between inside and outside. Breath functions as a medium of perception and as an active connection to the surrounding environment; smelling is understood as a form of touch without physical contact.

A video loop shows a face breathing onto a cold window. The breath condenses and becomes visible, appearing to enter the space from outside, ghostlike and disembodied. The work takes its starting point from the Ukrainian word podykh, which in certain contexts refers both to breath and to spirit or breath-as-spirit.

Through scent, sound, and atmosphere, the installation heightens visitors’ awareness of their own breathing. Essential oils such as mint, cedar, and eucalyptus fill the space, while a soundscape of amplified inhaling and exhaling moves through the room, making it seem as if the space itself were breathing.

How much of the outside enters us through breath, and how much of ourselves do we release back into the air?