AlbumArte
presents
What is happening with sleep today?
Julia Gryboś / Barbora Zentková, Martin Kohout, Ben Landau
Curated by Lýdia Pribišová
Opening reception on Thursday, November 7 2019, from 6:30pm
AlbumArte | Via Flaminia 122, Roma
Open to the public until December 7, 2019
On Thursday, November 7th 2019, from 6:30PM, AlbumArte will inaugurate the group show What is happening with sleep today?, featuring works by artists Julia Gryboś / Barbora Zentková, Martin Kohout and Ben Landau. The exhibition, which will remain open until December 7th, is curated by Lýdia Pribišová who recently co-curated the 12th Kaunas Biennial.
The exhibition places sleep and its possible, but at the same time impossible commercial use in today’s society at the center of its reflection, taking inspiration from the text of the art historian and essayist Jonathan Crary 24/7: Il capitalismo all’assalto del sonno, in open controversy with the dehumanizing conditions dictated by neoliberalism and non-stop productivity which leads to a life without pauses and a sort of a “global slumber”. A condition that is redesigning the notion of temporality, outlining new and extremely dangerous strategies for the surveillance of individual subjectivities which undermine the possibility of individual political expressions and dissent.
The artistic duo Julia Gryboś e Barbora Zentková creates a completely site-specific environment entitled The Shallow Sleep of Emergency Mode II which is also a sound installation. With their work, the artists face the most tangible and sensorial aspect that surrounds the culture of sleep, inserting in the space metallic and fabric elements – reminiscent of the bed – and an immersive meditative sound at low frequencies that invites to rest but, at the same time, it also evokes the feeling of anxiety that accompanies insomnia and that is the side effect of accelerating our rhythm of life. The fragmentation of the installation reflects the increasingly gradual breakdown of sleeping in today’s life and questions itself – as do the works of Martin Kohout e Ben Landau – whether or not sleep is the last bastion of human activity not subject to external monitoring.
Slides film by Martin Kohout is part of an ongoing research project about problems determinating nocturnal work, different steps of sleep, its alterations, the daily and more and more use of new technologies, our reactions both sensorial or mental to try to cohabit with this future that is already around us.
Ben Landau presents the multimedia installation Sleeper Cells, an experimental project that investigates the incidence of sleep in contemporary society sleeping and the subsequent dreaming open a connection with the unconscious now neglected by our hyper-real world, placing itself as a last bastion of freedom from the incessant pace of work. Sleeper Cells analyzes different situations where people shy away from the dimension of the conscious, preferring to explore the unknown worlds of their mind.
The exhibition has been supported using public funding from Slovak Art Council, from Faculty of Fine Arts VUT and from the Polish Institute in Rome.
Thanks to Tenute dei Fratelli Ciotola and Torleanzi winery for the wine tasting on the opening day.
BIO JULIA GRYBOŚ AND BARBORA ZENTKOVÁ >>>
BIO MARTIN KOHOUT >>>
BIO BEN LANDAU >>>
[Image: Martin Kohout, Slides (filmstill), 2017; full HD video, courtesy the artist]
• FURTHER INFORMATION
Open to the public until December 7th 2019 – free entry
Exhibition opening hours: from Tuesday to Saturday from 3:00 to 7:00pm
• PRESS CONTACTS
AlbumArte: +39 06 24402941 | info@albumarte.org | www.albumarte.org
PRESS RELEASE >>>
________________________________________________
