Sleep

SLEEP | FORMS, LANDSCAPES, CREATURES, 2019

The performance by Barbara Novakoviè draws on the rich iconography of depictions of sleep from the Old (Ezekiel, Job) and New Testament and is based on texts by J. L. Borges, St. Augustine, and some other literary sources and visual artists who delved into sleep.
Once in a while, the project embarks upon the so-called sweet dreams, nightmares and daydreaming. On the one hand, there is pressure to put the action to sleep, and on the other, the need to stay awake emerges.
The performer travels from scene to scene through the names of literary protagonists and images from the history of art, simultaneously living in dreams and daydreaming awake. The mental framework of the performance is the realm of dreams, where imagination and sensuality play a central role - a body in art between wakefulness (beyond dreams) and dreams.