Biography
Pia Imbar
Voice, breath, space, and trace
A multidisciplinary artist born in Salzburg, I develop a body of work where breath becomes line, singing becomes image, and the body becomes landscape. At the crossroads of drawing, painting, scenography, and voice, my research explores the invisible tensions of lyrical singing and the gestures that traverse it.
A dual focus: Canōgraphy and Interoception
At the heart of my work are two interconnected fields of research, born from my practice of drawing and classical singing, and nourished by a sensitive and poetic bodily approach:
Canōgraphy: a sung gesture that becomes light. By attaching luminous cuffs to my forearms and recording my movements with long-exposure photography, I create images where breath, voice, and movement intertwine in calligraphic traces. Canōgraphy is a writing born from singing, an inner calligraphy revealing the emotional and physical resonance of the vocal gesture.
Interoception: a graphic exploration of the inner architecture of the singing body. Through drawing, I attempt to map the internal sensations activated by singing — respiratory volumes, lines of tension, vibrations, expansions — with an approach that refuses simple anatomical illustration in order to reveal an embodied and intuitive listening to breath.
Scenography and visual practice
Trained in scenography at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, I also presented my artistic research projects there.
I have participated in numerous events in France, Austria, Spain, and Germany. My work includes scenic collaborations, live drawing performances, vocal interventions, as well as exhibitions combining visual art and musicality.
A journey shaped by voice
Although I started singing later in life, lyrical singing forms the backbone of my journey. Trained in France and Austria (Orléans Music Conservatory, Mozarteum Salzburg, and regular private singing lessons), I am particularly interested in breath grounding, bodily awareness, and the expressive and meditative dimensions of the voice.
My experience with freediving also nurtures this sensitivity to inner silence, meditation, and subtle mastery of breath. Thus, I develop an approach to the voice that transcends technique, becoming a tool for self-exploration and exploration of space.
Canōgraphy
Drawing with light and breath: merging voice and gesture
by Pia Imbar
Canōgraphy is a vocal and visual practice I conceived, in which singing becomes graphic gesture. By attaching luminous cuffs to the forearms of the performer and photographing the gestures with long exposure, traces of light naturally emerge — reflecting the emotional and physical nuances of the singing, without altering the performer’s natural posture.
The word Canōgraphy combines the Latin canō (“I sing”) and the Greek graphein (“to write, to draw”), describing a form of embodied calligraphy in which voice and gesture merge into one breath. Unlike external documentation or intentional illustration, this approach reveals the intimate gestures of singing — those that arise spontaneously from breath, phrasing, and inner impulse.
This exploration began from my desire to unify my two artistic practices: singing and drawing. Early experiments with singing while drawing in charcoal revealed a physical incompatibility between the two. I then developed a process in which the drawing emerges naturally from the vocal gesture, without disrupting the act of singing.
I am particularly drawn to the meditative and sacred dimensions that singing and calligraphy share. Canōgraphy honors these traditions by making visible the fleeting moments of internal resonance — not only in sound, but in space and light. The resulting images often resemble abstract calligraphy, a spontaneous transcription of embodied song.
Each session becomes a dialogue between breath, gesture, and image. Through this process, I seek not only to create visually sensitive compositions, but also to deepen the awareness of both vocal gesture and breath — their continuity, inwardness, and expressive force.
Interoception
Drawing from within: visualizing the voice’s inner architecture
by Pia Imbar
Lyrical singing engages the entire being — body, breath, memory, sensation. It involves not only sound production but the deep, dynamic presence of the self. With each phrase, the singer mobilizes physical tensions, elasticities, and subtle internal landscapes. These drawings seek to give shape to those invisible movements: they are attempts to map what is felt, not what is seen.
Rooted in my own experience as a classical singer and freediver, I developed this graphic language to explore how the inner perception of the body — interoception — supports vocal expression. The practice of freediving has taught me a new dimension of relaxation and stress management, as well as how to observe inner silence. Singing, similarly, draws on the body’s internal architecture — from diaphragm to nasopharynx, from sacrum to fontanelle — in ways that are more sensed than controlled.
These images are neither medical nor symbolic. They trace tensions, volume, vibration, resonance: a muscle stretching, the ribs expanding, or the path of a “rubber band” of support coursing through the torso. Sometimes, I isolate a specific sensation; other times, I attempt a holistic mapping of the singing body. My aim is not to illustrate anatomy, but to reveal a lived, poetic, and functional cartography of the voice as embodied.
This graphic approach is also at the heart of an ongoing research project I am developing with opera director Quentin Delépine, in which we explore the pedagogical and performative potential of visualizing interoceptive sensations in singing students and teachers.