Fruit of Sleep

Tamara Barrage, Ali Cherri, Khalil El Ghrib, Haitham Ennasr, Rami Farook, Claire Fontaine, Forensic Architecture, Sandi Hilal and Alessandro Petti, Emily Jacir, Tushar Joag, Dina Khouri, Los Carpinteros, Sigil, SUPERFLEX, Praneet Soi, YOUNG-HAE CHANG HEAVY INDUSTRIES.

To sleep is a necessity. The world of dreams – the realm of the subconscious – actively seeks answers in what is otherwise subliminally known. Thoughts roam freely, untied and unrestrained within sleep’s own logic and visual landscape.

In The Book of Sleep, Haytham El-Wardany considers the necessity of sleep in achieving a true awakening. He references the sleeper as a doer and a thinker, conflating sleep with the act of planning revolutions. Sleep becomes an act not of the singular mind, but of the social body, one that is carefully plotting change and action in the face of desolation and failed attempts.

The body of the sleeper is an active body, digesting its reality and materiality to produce an array of visuals, which stir and simmer in the stomach of our imagination. Digestion here becomes synonymous with sleep, necessary for a cycle of regeneration and perpetuation.

What are the aesthetic methodologies that can emerge from our collective state of falling in and out of sleep? Can artistic practice take flight from poesis and contemplation towards the socially effective?

Part of the final iteration of the Sharjah Biennale 13, this exhibition picks up on the thread of dormancy previously explored by curator Zeynep Öz in BAHAR, the SB13 Off-site Project in Istanbul and looks at states from sleep to digestion, and our embodied experience in the shifting vocabulary of art practices that beckon for more.

The range of artworks in this exhibition varies from installations that evoke the surreal to works that turn to direct social and political interventions. Artists delve into the imaginative, harness the aesthetic and without neglecting the contemplative, use their art to respond to urgency and real needs in the society.

(Texts: Organizers. © Photos: Binder & Haupt. Universes in Universe)

Sursock Museum
Greek Orthodox Archbishopric Str.
Ashrafieh 2071 5509
Beirut, Lebanon
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SB13 Act II in Beirut
co-organised by Sharjah Art Foundation & Ashkal Alwan, featuring events and programs across the city.

Exhibitions:

Fruit of Sleep
14 October - 31 December 2017
Sursock Museum
Curator: Reem Fadda

An Unpredictable Expression of Human Potential
14 October 2017 - 19 January 2018
Beirut Art Center
Curator: Hicham Khalidi
Associate Curator: Natasha Hoare

Sharjah Biennial 13: Tamawuj, 2017
Exhibitions, programmes, projects in Sharjah, Beirut, Dakar, Ramallah, Istanbul.