SLEEP

About

Sleep is a multidisciplinary exhibition that explores sleep as an artistic, sensory, acoustic and aesthetic motif. 20 international artists and 5 musicians present multifaceted perspectives on sleep: with painterly, graphic, sculptural, audiovisual works and spatial installations as well as live sound performances. An atmospheric, vibrant, poetic and sensual exhibition is coming to life at Kunsthalle HB55 in Berlin-Lichtenberg. 

Sleep is both an intrinsically individual experience and something that connects all people across cultural identities, languages and countries. During sleep, the body goes limp while the subconscious processes countless impressions and thoughts. When we sleep, we lose control over ourselves - over our bodies and our thoughts. When we wake up, we suddenly become aware of the gap between sleep and wakefulness. How can we get closer to the experiences of sleep and thus to ourselves? Can the discrepancy between the sleeping and the conscious self be reduced? The artists and musicians in Sleep are very familiar with entering and emerging into unconscious terrain and reality, as this is part of their artistic practice. The Sleep exhibition provides a glimpse into how art is created.

The artists in the exhibition explore sleep using a number of individual approaches, understanding it as a space, a time and a threshold state. Memories of falling asleep and waking up, dream images and nightmares are captured using artistic methods. Insomnia and inner, nocturnal monologues are traced. Dream paths, desires, longings and losses are explored and brought to the surface of consciousness. The exhibition design using spotlights in unlit rooms invites the audience to resonate with the synaesthetic sound of “sleep”. - Birgit Szepanski