Ekene Ijeoma — artist, assistant professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT and director of Poetic Justice at MIT Media Lab — has produced a new Brooklyn-based installation entitled “Breathing Pavilion.”

Located in Downtown Brooklyn’s Cultural District, the new interactive installation calls visitors to, even for just a few seconds, participate in a moment of meditation. Comprised of 20 nine-foot inflatable columns that occupy a 30-foot circle, each pillar gradually alters its vivid orange and illuminated brightness to mimic that of a deep breathing technique. Visitors are strongly encouraged to align their breathing along with the light changes to achieve a few moments of release.

“Between the ongoing struggles in the racial and political movements in the United States and the COVID-19 pandemic, it can be difficult to find the time and space to breathe deeply and rest well”, Ijeoma says. “Until then, in these next few weeks, this pavilion is here to invite the public to breathe into the change within each of us, in sync with one another.”