段英梅 · Yingmei Duan

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Sleeping

Duration: 8 hours

Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste Braunschweig, Germany, 2004
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2005

Photographer: Anna Berndtson & Melati Suryodarmo

Live Performance

The live performance is based on Egon Schiele’s Works exhibited in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam in 2005.

As I watch Schiele’s self-portraits, I am reminded of dead bodies that have slept in the earth for a very long time. All flesh is gone, only the bones are left. If one sees photos of Egon Schiele, he always looks very absentminded, as if he were sleeping or dreaming. As I contemplate the paintings of Schiele, I often recognize myself in them. Whenever possible I use my time to sleep. I wish to be far away from the world, far away from life itself.
During the Schiele exhibition I daily sleep on a shelf from 10:00 to 18:00, for one week.