multimedia installation with the live broadcast, 2017 led TV screen, loudspeakers, tripods, wi-fi connection, ip-camera.
This work is based on a live video broadcast presenting the artist (Gaisha Madanova) sleeping. Every night from 11 pm till 8 am (GMT+1) the video stream transmits the artist´s intimate ritual of sleeping from her bedroom to the exhibition space. During daytime (and opening hours of the exhibition space) a flat TV screen is transmitting the blue color that is also known as the «Blue Screen of Death». This screen is surrounded by 4 loudspeakers that are defining the perimeter of the installation. The physical space is created by the presence of the low sound of the shuffle or background noise of active speakers without any content. The set-up of the installation invites viewers to wait in front of the screen expecting to see something. But due to the time difference between cities, the opening hours of the art institution, and the time of the broadcast, the artist is never present and the visitors can´t see the image they would expect, but only the blue screen. Thereby making use of the widely available popular technology of live stream to share private experience, the artist always remains to sleep alone in an empty exhibition space. This work is dealing with the act of sleeping and the intimacy of the bed, questioning voyeurism, new media, intimacy, technological surveillance, everyday life, displacement, absence, and virtual presence.
Commissioned by Yarat Contemporary Art Space for the group show SUNS AND NEONS ABOVE KAZAKHSTAN, Yarat Contemporary Art Space, Baku, Azerbaijan, 2017.
