1. Description of the work

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Breathing Panorama — Phase I unfolds across twelve vertical panels forming a continuous 360° landscape. Each panel connects precisely to the next, creating a coherent panoramic field.

 

The work breathes. It opens into wide, atmospheric expanses where forms dissolve into light, then contracts into the density of a forest where trunks rise close, enclosing the viewer. From this point of immersion, space gradually releases again, returning to distance and dispersion. The panorama does not settle: it oscillates between presence and dissolution, between being within and looking across.

 

2. Sequence of panels

Taken together, the panels form a cycle: from distant openness to enclosed proximity, and back again to dissolution. The panorama does not describe a fixed place, but a movement through different regimes of perception.

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• Panel 1: The panorama begins at a lower level, within the valley. The landscape is approached from within rather than from above. It is both undefined—mountains remain largely veiled by clouds—and specific: a deer appears among the trees, as if momentarily aware of the viewer.

• Panel 2: The valley continues. The presence of water and low terrain maintains proximity. The space remains grounded and relatively enclosed. A bridge introduces a passage, suggesting movement toward the next stage.

• Panel 3: The climb begins. The viewpoint rises, and the terrain opens slightly as the viewer moves upward.

• Panel 4: Ascent continues. Distance from the valley floor increases. The landscape becomes more structured, and trees begin to assert a stronger presence.

• Panel 5: Arrival near the upper levels. Entry into the forest. The space thickens, and vertical elements introduce a first sense of enclosure.

• Panel 6: Within the forest. Trunks rise close to the viewer. Depth compresses, and the landscape becomes immediate and tactile.

• Panel 7: Maximum enclosure. The forest surrounds the viewer. Vertical structures dominate. Space is dense and shallow, focused on proximity.

• Panel 8: Descent begins. The enclosure loosens. While trunks remain, openings appear, and depth gradually returns.

• Panel 9: The landscape opens further. The viewer moves downhill, and a longer view emerges toward a lower mountain. Space extends outward again.

• Panel 10: Distance is re-established. The view stabilises across a broader landscape. Openness becomes dominant.

• Panel 11: Forms begin to dissolve. Contours soften, and the landscape transitions toward atmosphere. Distinctions between elements weaken.

• Panel 12: Near-complete fusion. The image approaches a continuous field of light and cloud. The landscape is no longer composed of distinct objects, but of a diffuse, undifferentiated space.

 

3. A continuous project

The panorama is not fixed. When a panel is acquired, it is replaced by a new version that is slightly different and more fused than the previous one. Over time, the work evolves while preserving its internal rhythm. It exists not as a single, definitive image, but as a succession of states. Each acquisition initiates a transformation of the panorama. The removed panel becomes a fragment that preserves a previous state of the work, while its absence alters the configuration of the whole. The purchaser thus occupies a dual position. The panel they hold is both an autonomous work and a trace of an earlier phase. At the same time, the act of acquisition triggers the continuation of the panorama elsewhere. The purchaser becomes the point through which the work transforms, initiating a process in which removal and replacement simultaneously preserve and renew the whole.

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4. Frame

In this series, the frame is not a boundary but an extension of the work. Each panel is framed by hand in natural meranti wood, brushed to a soft, matte finish. Rather than enclosing the image, the frame maintains a continuity between the landscape and its surroundings, allowing the work to remain open within the space.

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5. References

The project takes its point of departure from Panorama Mesdag by Hendrik Willem Mesdag (1881), a cylindrical painting presenting a continuous 360° view of the sea and surrounding village. It further developed following an encounter with Landscape of the Four Seasons, attributed to Kanō Chōkichi, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

More broadly, the work draws on the Chinese shanshui tradition, developed over many centuries, in which landscape is understood as a dynamic configuration of forces. Mountains and clouds are not fixed objects but shifting structures, and emptiness functions as an active element within the composition.