LA DELEUZIANA – ONLINE JOURNAL OF PHILOSOPHY – ISSN 2421-3098 N. 9 / 2019 – THE SCHIZOANALYTIC CLINIC 219 “I can’t breath” as schizo-analysis: chaosmosis, poetry and cinema Interview with FRANCO "BIFO" BERARDI by MITRA AZAR Abstract This interview done December 31, 2018 approaches the theme of LaDeleuziana starting from the new book Bifo has just published, titled Breathing (Semiotexte, 2019), and proposes to wave the concept of breathing as a new radical political category together with the attempt of understanding it as a possible schizo-clinical tool to elaborate strategies of resistance to the current political crisis. From Eric Garner chocked to death by a police officier while screaming “I can’t breath” to the history of social movements from ’68 up to the Gilet Jeunes as the attempt of the general intellect to give itself a body - and as a consequence a breath - able to articulate the current necro-political spasm, the interview digs into the extremely original and visionary political theory of one of the most radical Italian philosopher and activist. Taking as an excuse the recent trip in Argentina and Uruguay Bifo has just returned from – where he’s also visited the Felix Guattari’s center in Montevideo – the interview aims at drawing the constellation that connects Breathing to the chaosmotic thought of the French schizo-analyst, as much as to the role of poetry and cinema in re-articulating the rhythms of a politics to come. Mitra: Let’s start with a straightforward question about your book, Breathing, and let’s see if from here we can “conspire” together some thoughts. Where did the idea of the book come from? Bifo: I was in the United States in Autumn 2014, the period of the Ferguson riots. At that time, I happened to receive the link to a video showing Eric Garner, a black person living in Staten Island, New York City, choked to death by a police officer named David Pantaleo – I remember the names of murderers. Eric Garner was choked and pushed to the ground while whispering “I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t breathe I can’t breathe”. He said these words eight times, and you can hear his voice until the point of dissolution. He died. Many people reacted to his death by marching in the streets of New York and of other cities, shouting “I can’t breathe”. When I heard these words, I perceived a very rich message. You’re not a philosopher if you don’t understand the meaning of very simple, basic, almost banal words, when those words are pronounced by one million people. You have to understand the meaning of that. So, when I listened to people shouting “I can’t breathe” I realized that