Brother of Sleep

Because one thing is stronger than us, and that is the eternal progression of time, which never stops and inevitably leads to death.”

Christian Boltanski

Four faceless dancers perform a ghostly, seemingly endlessly repeating dance. As in a baroque painting, beauty and death (= the brother of sleep) are juxtaposed here in an aestheticizing manner in one composition – a memento mori – underpinned by Johann Sebastian Bach’s Kreuzstabkantate “Komm o Tod, du Schlafes Bruder” (Come, O death, thou brother of sleep). The butterfly as a baroque metaphor combines both in an impressive way: Beauty, transience, death and resurrection.

The basis of this work are 12 photographs in long exposure. Their constructed sequence in rapid succession creates an artificial choreography that becomes increasingly distorted.