the guardians of sleep (online)

performance

Who watches over our sleep?

The Guardians of Sleep (online) is a performance that takes the shape of a late-night zoom call in which performers disclose various levels of intimacy to a single viewer or to a small group of spectators. By sharing their personal archive of visual memories, they unfold their own life stories. Fiction and reality become blurred. And viewers get caught in a whirlpool of images. A relation between performer and viewer is established and a feeling of proximity and deep empathy finally allows for the performers to fall asleep in front of the spectators, for them actually.

Who watches over whose sleep in the end? And how do we watch over it if a screen – and potentially hundreds of kilometres – separate us?

concept
david weber-krebs
artistic assistance and production management
simone basani
performance
may abnet, julien bruneau, alondra castellanos arreola, irena radmanovic
production
infinite endings with ringlokschuppen, schwankhalle and approche paris

The theatre-performance The Guardians of Sleep was created in 2017. In 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic it was conceived as a late-night zoom call. At a ppr oc he, Paris, it becomes a collectible artwork and it is presented as a 20-year lasting performance. By purchasing it, art collectors will have the possibility to activate this performance for themselves and their guests within this long period of time. At each activation, the performance will have evolved together with the performers and the events of their lives.

Conception by David Weber-Krebs with the artistic assistance of Simone Basani.
Performed by May Abnet, Irena Radmanovic, Julien Bruneau.

Production: Alice Ciresola and Simone Basani (Infinite Endings).
Presentation venue: a ppr oc he, an independent salon dedicated to the experimentation of photographic medium. Director: Emilia Genuardi.

    Irena's sequence @ David Weber-Krebs
    May's sequence @ David Weber-Krebs

Still from The Guardians of Sleep (online) sequences.

    © David Weber-Krebs
    © David Weber-Krebs
    © David Weber-Krebs
    © Gregory Copitet

The Guardians of Sleep (online) at a ppr oc he, Le Molière (Paris).

For Ringlokschuppen Mülheim, the performance took the shape of a late-night zoom call in which the media overstimulation of the present leads to a shared sleep experience.

Viewers get caught in a whirlpool of images. Set pieces of old residents, newcomers, people who have stayed put and people who have returned to Mülheim, whose biographies throw highlights into the darkness. They show us fragments from lived, possible and impossible lives in the city. In the stream of images, fiction and reality become blurred.

Conception by David Weber-Krebs with the artistic assistance of Simone Basani. Performed by Irena Radmanovic, Peter Helmke, Petra Wercholand, Bina Noss, Anette Dietz, Jan Rohwedder, Julien Bruneau, Dorothee Schepers, Alondra Arreola Castellanos, assisted by theatre pedadogue Elizabeth Sterzer. Film by Caterina Erica Shanta

Production by Ringlokschuppen with Infinite Endings.
Thanks to Luanda Casella, Matthew Day, Zoë Demoustier, Hidde Aans-Verkade, Ayrton Fraenk, Len Pillen, Dennis Tiecken, Juriaan De Vos, Luuk Weers, Vincent Van Woerkom, Jan Fedinger, Martin Kaffarnik, Anne Catherine Kunz, Leonie Persyn, Marie Urban, Lara Staal and Sebastien Hendrickx.

    performers behind the screen, online performance. Ph: Caterina Erica Shanta.
    performers behind the screen, online performance. Ph: Caterina Erica Shanta.
    performers behind the screen, online performance. Ph: Caterina Erica Shanta.
    rehearsals at Ringlokschuppen Ruhr. Ph: Caterina Erica Shanta.
    rehearsals at Ringlokschuppen Ruhr. Ph: Caterina Erica Shanta.
    rehearsals at Ringlokschuppen Ruhr. Ph: Caterina Erica Shanta.
    rehearsals at Ringlokschuppen Ruhr. Ph: Caterina Erica Shanta.
    rehearsals at Ringlokschuppen Ruhr. Ph: Caterina Erica Shanta.
    rehearsals at Ringlokschuppen Ruhr. Ph: Caterina Erica Shanta.
    rehearsals at Ringlokschuppen Ruhr. Ph: Caterina Erica Shanta.
    rehearsals at Ringlokschuppen Ruhr. Ph. Caterina Erica Shanta
    rehearsals at Ringlokschuppen Ruhr.
    rehearsals at Ringlokschuppen Ruhr.

rehearsing a new version of The Guardians of Sleep and passing the performance on to five new performers in Mühlheim/Ruhr

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agenda

ringlokschuppen ruhr

collaboration

schwankhalle, bremen

performance

approche, paris

performance

ringlokschuppen mülheim / online

performance
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