段英梅 · Yingmei Duan

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Sleeping in Van Gogh museum

Photos

Duration: 7 days, for each day 6 hours

Van Gogh museum, Amsterdam, the Netherlands, 2005

Photographer: Constanze Schmidt

Live performance

The live performance is based on Egon Schieles Works exhibited in the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam in 2005. As I watch Schieles 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.

I stand in pyjama during I sleep and move unconscious.