Lenz Geerk
Sleep, so familiar yet strange at the same time. Like eating and drinking, it is a necessary part of life. A daily recurring phenomenon which takes up a third of your life. During sleep, the brain is being cleansed, causing connections between the brain cells to change. While at the same time strengthening some connections so you remember things. Sleep also reduces stress and emotions. Within science a lot has been discovered about our sleeping habits, yet great mysteries about sleep still remain. Many people within the arts are drawn to this fascinating theme. From 24 August, the family exhibition Sleep! takes you on a small exploration into the vast domain of sleep and dreams, through the eyes of about 50 visual artists and designers. They will let you experience the essential importance and privilege of rest.
Within the exhibition, you walk through the four sleep stages; from slumber to light sleep, then on to deep sleep. (Sleep)walk through the dream phase to a large space where the bed stands central. Some fairy-like, others harrowing sleeping places in paintings and sculptures. Mona Hatoum shows the bed shaped like a grater, Hans van Bentem created a heavenly bed and Teun Hocks portrayed himself sleeping in moving boxes. Not everyone has an ideal sleep cycle; stress and anxiety can often lead to disorders such as insomnia and nightmares. Explore this dark side of sleep in the Sleep/Wake space. Meet the poignant work 'Moe' by Aalt van de Glind, which deals with his girlfriend's chronic fatigue. Start, if you wish, a new tour through the exhibition and undergo a second or third sleep cycle, until you hopefully leave the exhibition completely rested!
In slumber, there is the mysterious blue hour, the transition between day and night (and vice versa) depicted by Yasmijn Karhof and Merel Karhof in their work 'The Blue Hour'. Sarah Mei Herman captures the special state of consciousness between wakefulness and sleep (hypnagogia) in her photo’s. The feeling of light sleep is very sensitively expressed in the face made of glass by Leiko Ikemura. The feeling of falling into a deep sleep is shown in Carlijn Jacobs' video 'Sleeping Beauty'. In deep REM sleep, your brain is resting, and creative connections are forged. Mladen Stilinović made this self-portrait series of a sleeping artist in 1978. The work is aptly named: 'Artist at Work'.
On your way into dreamland, you stumble upon Harm van den Berg's work 'Threshold of Complexity'. The deep black background functions as the representation of the sleeping state, while the white drawn networks evoke associations with the unconscious brain processes during different sleep stages.