BREATHING CORAL is an aesthetic journey into a macroscopic underwater world of coral existence and silent extinction. 

In a close collaboration with international coral researchers, visual artist and documentary filmmaker Maja Friis has used macro optics to discover distinctive personas in coral species and to pass on stories about slow life, transformation and extinction from a place, which the naked eye can’t reach. BREATHING CORAL is a video and sound installation that creates a sensitive portrait of the planet’s disappearing coral individuals.

The corals have been filmed over several weeks. This thorough process has made it possible to follow their circadian daily rhythm and capture each animal’s unique personality and distinctive behaviours – as well as visually capturing responses to climate change stressors that haven’t been detected and captured in real time before.

The work is created in close collaboration with an international team of coral scientists: Michael Kühl, professor at the University of Copenhagen, Postdoc Elena Bollati, post.doc Cesar Pacherres, PhD Gabriel Ferreira and Post.doc Tom Schlesinger.