Breathing Ancient Air: Inside Tasmania’s Extraordinary Oxygen Installation

Deep beneath Tasmania’s Museum of Old and New Art lies an exceptional installation that invites visitors to breathe oxygen that has remained untouched for over 2.4 billion years. French-Swiss conceptual artist Julian Charrière’s latest enduring work, titled Breathe, 2026, extracts ancient air from iron ore obtained from Australia’s Pilbara region, then discharges it into a underground space for visitors to breathe in for the very first time. The oxygen, locked away since the Paleoproterozoic era when Earth’s atmosphere initially started filling with free oxygen during the Great Oxidation, creates a tangible bond between each visitor and the origins of life on Earth itself. Mona’s owner David Walsh commissioned the bespoke space specifically for Charrière’s innovative vision, transforming it into what the artist describes as “a time machine.”

A Voyage Through Ancient Time

The installation itself is designed as a profoundly reflective, solitary experience that reflects the ancient timeframes it references. Visitors enter a vault-like corridor reminiscent of a vast mining drift, their path bordered by unfinished sandstone and crimson-hued stone sourced directly from the Pilbara. As they descend into the earth, the temperature falls markedly with each step, producing an growing absorbing atmosphere that highlights the movement through time. The tunnel finally expands into a towering cylindrical chamber, its high ceiling and windowless design conjuring the sensation of descending into the earth’s primordial interior.

The chamber’s illumination is deliberately minimal, relying completely on whatever sunlight can be reflected through a small opening far above—a constraint that proves particularly pronounced during Tasmania’s dim winter months. At the centre of this underground space stands a floor-to-ceiling glass cylinder housing the Hofmann apparatus, the apparatus responsible for extracting oxygen from water. Visitors sit before a small opening in the glass, positioning themselves at the threshold between the contemporary realm and something essentially primordial. Here, in this meticulously arranged environment, they encounter oxygen that has been locked away since before any complex life existed on Earth.

• Vintage iron ore extracted from Australia’s Pilbara region each day
• Water separation and decomposition via Hofmann equipment systems
• Polished ancient tiger ore tiles cover the floor of the chamber
• Limited lighting reflects through sole aperture above ground

The Study Behind the Breathe Experience

Extracting Oxygen from Ancient Iron Ore

The technical mechanism underpinning Charrière’s installation is deceptively elegant in its implementation. Each day, ancient iron ore sourced from Australia’s Pilbara region—one of Earth’s most ancient geological formations—is treated through specialised machinery housed within Mona’s on-site laboratory. The ore experiences meticulous extraction to yield water that has been trapped within its crystalline structure for over 2.4 billion years. This water, never before exposed to the modern atmosphere, becomes the raw material for the subsequent phase of the process, bridging an incomprehensible temporal gulf with scientific precision.

Once removed, this primordial water is introduced to a Hofmann apparatus, a 19th-century laboratory device that uses electrolysis to split hydrogen and oxygen molecules. The process mirrors the basic chemical processes that first filled Earth’s early atmosphere, recreating in miniature the molecular interactions that occurred during the Great Oxidation Event itself. The oxygen produced is remarkably pure, having undergone no contamination or contact with contemporary atmospheric conditions. This pristine gas is then carefully released into the breathing chamber, where it encounters human lungs for the first time in Earth’s history.

What makes this scientific undertaking particularly striking is its philosophical dimension. By employing conventional electrochemical methods to liberate oxygen from primordial water, Charrière converts a routine laboratory procedure into a moment of temporal connection. Visitors are not simply witnessing scientific exposition; they are engaging with a moment where profound geological timescales intersects with human consciousness. The Hofmann apparatus becomes far more than a device—it functions as a bridge between epochs, allowing contemporary observers to directly experience the chemical makeup of an ancient world, forging an profound connection to planetary history that transcends traditional museum experience.

• Iron ore sourced daily from the Pilbara’s historic rock deposits
• Hofmann apparatus electrolyses water to produce pure oxygen gas
• Released oxygen has not come into contact with contemporary air or biological life

Understanding the Underground Sanctuary

The passage to breathe primordial air begins with a intentional plunge into the subterranean reaches of Mona. Visitors step into a chamber-like passageway that creates the sensation of traversing an enormous mining drift, its walls lined with raw sandstone and featuring deep red rocks extracted from the Pilbara region. This design decision grounds the experience in geological authenticity, reminding participants that they are quite literally walking through the identical rock that once trapped oxygen billions of years ago. The passage is intentionally solitary, designed to isolate each visitor and foster an reflective, meditative environment away from the distractions of the contemporary world above.

As one ventures further into the installation, the temperature markedly decreases with each step, a tangible expression of descent into the planet’s primordial strata. The corridor gradually opens into a striking lofty cylindrical chamber, a underground tower-shaped space devoid of windows. The lighting here relies completely on sunlight reflected through a tiny aperture far above, creating an otherworldly, constantly shifting illumination that shifts with Tasmania’s seasonal cycles and climatic conditions. During the winter season, the space becomes particularly dim and atmospheric, enhancing the sense of being disconnected from time itself.

The Vault Design Framework

The cylindrical breathing chamber constitutes the installation’s central soul. Visitors move over tiles fashioned from polished historic tiger ore, a material that itself bears traces of Earth’s oxidative past. At the room’s center stands a full-height transparent glass tube holding the Hofmann apparatus, presenting the scientific equipment open and visible to observers. This structural openness symbolises the artwork’s commitment to honesty—visitors can observe the real process drawing out and liberating the ancient oxygen, explaining the process whilst preserving its profound significance.

Seating areas placed ahead of the glass cylinder offer the best viewing positions for the breathing experience. A small hole in the device marks the specific point where geological oxygen meets the modern era, where geological time meets human respiration. The design intentionally stresses peaceful silence, inviting guests to remain in silence and reflect on the remarkable quality of what they are going to experience. Every structural component, from the gleaming stone floor beneath one’s feet to the ambient illumination above, underscores the piece’s core concept of connection across time.

Solid Ground: Investigating Ancient Timescales Via Artistic Expression

Julian Charrière’s “Breathe, 2026” embodies a marked divergence from established contemporary artistic conventions, combining scientific precision with philosophical inquiry into the human relationship with Earth’s temporal scales. By recovering oxygen preserved in iron ore for approximately two billion years, Charrière reimagines a lab technique into a profound meditative experience. The exhibition invites viewers to contemplate their own small place in Earth’s vast temporal scales, whilst simultaneously connecting them physically to the planet’s most fundamental life-enabling event. This methodology demonstrates a increasing trend among concept-based practitioners who harness scientific techniques not just as visual instruments, but as means of accessing deeper insight of our existence and planetary history.

The artwork works through multiple interpretive levels, acting at once as scientific inquiry, philosophical reflection, and participatory performance. Each visitor transforms into an unaware contributor in an ongoing temporal narrative, their personal breathing adding to a shared experience that surpasses traditional gallery confines. Charrière’s vision extends beyond the work itself—visitors remain part of the artwork throughout their lives, holding within themselves atoms of oxygen that existed before human civilisation by billions of years. This intellectual framework changes the act of breathing from a singular moment into a permanent, physical connection to vast temporal spans, disrupting basic presuppositions about where the boundaries of art lie.

Mona’s decision to commission this permanent installation showcases the museum’s resolve in advancing artistic boundaries and fostering experimental approaches. By providing a bespoke subterranean space tailored to Charrière’s vision, owner David Walsh has fundamentally reimagined the complete work into a joint artistic creation between creator, museum, and audience. This level of institutional support enables the execution of innovative creative ventures that might otherwise remain unrealised, positioning Tasmania as a major hub for avant-garde artistic practice that substantively investigates scientific inquiry and temporal consciousness.

Becoming Part of the Installation

What makes Breathe remarkably extraordinary is not merely the act of breathing ancient oxygen, but the intellectual significance Charrière places upon that moment. Once you inhale the Pilbara air released through the Hofmann apparatus, you become permanently incorporated into the artwork itself. The oxygen molecules entering your lungs will stay within your body for the rest of your life, creating an indelible biological connection between you and the Great Oxidation Event. You are no longer merely a visitor observing art; you are the art, bearing within you atoms that precede human existence by billions of years.

This significant reframing of creative involvement challenges conventional notions of where an artwork concludes and everyday existence starts. Charrière has deftly obscured these boundaries, transforming Breathe from a discrete gallery experience into an continuous, lived expression that unfolds throughout each visitor’s lifetime. Every breath you breathe afterwards functions as an unthinking recognition of that timeless bond. The installation thus functions at once in the subterranean vault at Mona and throughout the beings of countless individuals dispersed worldwide, forming an invisible network of participants bound together by common molecular past and temporal consciousness.

• Visitors turn into permanent participants in the artwork upon inhalation of ancient oxygen
• Oxygen atoms from 2.4 billion years ago become part of visitors’ bodies for life
• The installation goes beyond the gallery into the daily lives of all participants