dormART - international arts project 2006

On the peak of his creative power Leonardo Da Vinci slept only for 15 minutes every four hours; the close relation between sleep and death is symbolised by the 100 years lasting sleep of Sleeping Beauty in the fairytale.

Nobody is truly sleepless, but there is sleepwalking and insomnia.

World wide there are very different manners of sleeping: Alone, in relationships, within family or tribe, between walls made of stone, concrete or paper. Some sleep under the open sky. Not always voluntarily or as a free person. Quiet or restless.

The Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu (300 BC) wrote: "Everything is in unity; while sleeping the soul is unbothered and included in this unity; on the other side, while being awake, the soul is distracted and sees the different facts of the world."
Buddha means "the one, who woke up", which means he is the one, who woke up from ignorance.
A common saying is: "sleeping the sleep of the just".

There are limitations to the sleep. Religious, cultural, given by society or forced on somebody by exceptional situations.

To notice this limitations and borders, to cross them under international and artistic views , is our concern and was the reason to plan "dormART".
15 artists with there individual ideas. Each of them rooted in their culture and on the same time bursting their traditional background. Starting from the same point: A similar looking empty room, 4 meters x 4 meters, 2.50 meters in height. The works: 11 very different projects on the topic of sleep.

bulding up
the first room

dormART likes to thank the members of the Jury:

- Peter Friese, curator Neues Museum Weserburg, Bremen
- Jan Hoet, artistic director MARTa, Herford; artistic director of Documenta IX, Kassel
- Dr. Christiane Vielhaber, Artcritic and freelancing Journalist, Köln