Inhaling the Storm

<p>The first event of <em>Taming the Horror Vacui</em> was marked by uncanny coincidences. Revolving around the topic of the wind, Haseeb Ahmed’s long- term program at Rib kicked off with windstorm Ciara blowing the streets of the neighborhood of Charlois in Rotterdam. This double wind, real and metaphorical, seemed like a sign. Visitors must have felt it too when they were asked by Ahmed’s first guest Michèle Matyn to go for a dowsing walk in the windy neighborhood, looking for signs through magic rods, and practicing ritualistic breath-in talking afterwards.</p> <p>The first issue of this publication is titled <em>Inhaling the Storm</em> in honor of those fruitful coincidences. For it, we have collected testimonies from those inhalers, as well as serendipitous references, spreading them over 8 pages. The central images of Ahmed’s installation and collaborative work with Matyn and Rib have been framed by annotations that are not so much explanation of those images as they are complementation. The concept of annotations as commentary on a central content is gratefully inspired by the design of the recent republication of Bruno Munari’s Obvious Code in The Serving Library Annual.</p> <p>Among other things, in this issue we have asked workshop participants Roxanne and Rawad to share impressions from their dowsing walk; we have included some inspired words by Matyn about one of her drawings, crucially transferred onto the collaborative table top with Ahmed during an intensive working session; we have reported stories from citizens of Charlois about its windy streets; we have found a paragraph by South African photographer Santu Mofokeng about the efficiency of mystically chasing shadows; we have tried to show how Matyn and Ahmed’s practices can be seen as an update of 200 years old theories, we have taken the well known deep breath one should take before commencing anything.</p>