Dream Diary and Ocean Breath

Description:

This evening of live performance by Basque artist Itziar Okariz offered an introduction to her practice ahead of a workshop series with students and recent alumni from Emily Carr University of Art + Design. The presentation featured two works exploring language, sound, and the body, built from small linguistic units and signs that generate meaning through reiteration.

In Dream Diary, Okariz continued her practice of recording dreams. In the month before the performance, she kept a diary of recollections written immediately upon waking—brief impressions that often take the form of vivid narratives or fleeting images. During the performance, these texts were transformed through fragmented, cyclical readings: phrases were multiplied, inverted, and connected, with each reading carrying the last word into the next. Gradually, the full dream emerges. 

The program concluded with Ocean Breath, a collaboration with Izar Okariz. Drawing on ujjayi breathing—a yogic technique reminiscent of ocean waves—the work amplified breath through microphones as two performers inhaled and exhaled, sometimes in sync, sometimes not. This accumulative chorus of breaths shifted between abstraction and figuration, evoking the rhythm of the sea.

Presented in partnership with Libby Leshgold Gallery and Emily Carr University of Art + Design. This project was funded in part by the Government of Canada.