Exhibition
April 6–June 21
Open weekly on Friday and Saturday between 12-5 PM
The act of dreaming, positioned delicately between the real and the unrealized or unfulfilled, is nourished by hope and desire, but also by fear and disillusionment. It is when living in times of economic and social insecurity that the collective body claims for more space and action, growing louder and stronger. Rather than viewing precarity as a barrier, we can embrace it as an intrinsic aspect of existence that fosters collaboration among both living and non-living creatures. In this new light, precarity assumes a life-producing capacity, generating alternative worlds and stories. When dreams and nightmares take stage as protagonists for a common purpose, they equip us with unexpected tools, offering resources beyond our individual imaginings.
'Dreams of dreams of dreams' is an exhibition and public program which explores the transformative power of imagination when fuelled by a collective resolve to dismantle the status quo. Continuously re-imaging alternative presents, the collective body creates new tools and paradigms. Through artistic exploration, the exhibited works and activities delve into the experience of precarity as a shared condition for common survival. Dreaming thus becomes a communal practice—a process to be contextualized, cultivated, safeguarded, and nurtured. Within this space, we are offered the opportunity to rehearse new worlds together and to train our capacity of dreaming-in-common.
From oneiric reminiscences to daydreaming narratives, and culminating in the collective yet mislead dream for privilege, the exhibition consists of three works offering tools for reclaiming agency over our oppressed reality. Beginning with the liberation of our own bodies, Émilien Neu offer us a costume that transcends our human molds, allowing us to blend versatilely into an ever-changing world. Next, we dive into the power of our dreams and nightmares, where, through collective imagination and the eclectic guidance of Matilde Patuelli, our minds are unlashed from the constraints built to disempower one another. Finally, we are taken by the hand into the harrowing labyrinth of European immigration policies, as depicted by Maja Simišić, chasing the elusive dream of obtaining a visa amidst a daylight nightmare of bias and adversity.
Curated by Cecilia Casabona
Participating artists are Émilien Neu, Matilde Patuelli, Maja Simišić, OOOReading Club, Gaia D’Arrigo, Mala Kline, Fede Fantini
Graphics by Alex Foradori & Bianca Schick
Public program
General opening hours
April 6–June 21
Every Friday and Saturday between 12-5 PM
Opening exhibition
Friday, April 5th 19:00–22:00
Performance by OOOReading Club 20:00
Free entrance + 1 free drink
Including a performance/collective reading by OOOReading Club, titled 'Hour of the star'. They will present an interactive poem about the chasmic/cosmic boundaries between our waking and dreamworlds.
Workshop by Matilde Patuelli 'Unreliable Narrators – ricocheting rêverie'
Saturday, April 6th 13:00-18:00
Workshop by Matilde Patuelli & Gaia D’Arrigo 'Dreamweaving the Grotesque'
Saturday, May 11th, 10:00-18:00
23 hour performance by Mala Kline 'DREAM HOSTEL'
Friday, May 24th 20:00 until Saturday, May 25th 18:00
Participatory performance by Fede Fantini 'Kitchen Horizontal'
Saturday, June 8th, 15:00-until dinner time
Finissage and Book Launch 'Dreams of dreams of dreams'
Friday, June 21st, 19:00-22:00
About the artist exhibitors
Matilde Patuelli
Matilde Patuelli is a social designer and researcher. Her work explores reality perception, social constructs, and playful interaction. Under the lens of care and well-being, she questions the stigmas and misperceptions that surround our everyday lives. In her projects often the research gets translated into tools aiming to reinforce empathetic capacity and deconstruct misunderstandings. At the present time, she is developing her design practice by looking at the fields of psychology and psychiatry and learning how to incorporate larp (live action role play) as a narrational and experiential tool for co-creation within this exploration.
Maja Simišić is a multimedia artist focusing on everyday battles, and finding ways to turn them on their head. The model she uses to overthrow existing gender and class struggles in her work is built by analysing the expectations put on us by modern societal structures and historical narratives.
As a female from the Balkans, living and working in the western world, her artistic practice is deeply influenced by, on the one hand, the perception of the eastern European in western society, and on the other, the way in which people in the Balkans are raised, their fundamental beliefs, and the role of women in both these contexts.
Maja carries heavy subject matters with light-heartedness and humour specific to her character. Extremely individualistic in nature, rooted in identity and identity politics, Maja asks her audience to question what is right in front of them. With a pinch of absurdity and a whole bunch of satire, she helps us see that all our realities are connected and that we need understanding and a certain willingness to accept differences in order to make an actual change. Her methodology of choice is the practice of restroying. She seeks to escape this great Kafkaesque machine of oppression by building a fortress of collective imagination.
Émilien Neu is a queer French artist born in 1996. He lives and works in Brussels. As a child he used to play with spiders and enjoy the company of his grandmothers who would give him yarns and beads to while away the time. At 19, he enrolled in the bachelor course at the design academy Eindhoven where he pursued to learn about all sculpting matters in the different workshops. At one point he spent all his time in the textile workshop. He graduated in 2019 and as soon as the pandemic was spreading he enrolled in a new class. At Brussels royal academy of fine arts, Émilien studied the specifics of tapestry weaving and textile arts.Becoming a designer, artist, craftsman, weaver, and self-proclaimed queen of tapestry, Émilien found his way of expression. His practice involves soft and flexible materials in long term time-consuming processes, and hand made techniques, colours, textures and details in details. Time is for him a tool to invest in the slow making of textiles, and a concept that brings forth endless questions. He injects into his work ideas of space, time and life, feelings of joy and delusion, wishing to inspire viewers with optimism and patience.
