Von der Vermessung des Schlafes

Together with Ruth Velten and the LUX:NM ensemble, composer Peter Gahn and concert designer Anselm Dalferth are developing a musical and performative dramaturgy that makes the tensions between individual bodily rhythms, societal pressure to perform and constant availability audible and tangible. Taking developments since the Industrial Revolution as its starting point, the project combines historical perspectives with contemporary discourses and alternative forms of knowledge drawn from art, literature and everyday culture. In doing so, it draws a parallel between the ‘right to laziness’ and the notion of human beings as a resource available at all times. Various musical works enter into dialogue with a new composition by Peter Gahn, inspired by scientific research. The result is a concert evening that opens up sleep as a space of experience – as a state in which the body, society and time interact in a unique way.

With the kind support of the German Sleep Foundation, which provided academic guidance and facilitated the collaboration with the research institute Advanced Sleep Research GmbH (ASR) and the piano manufacturer Steingraeber & Söhne.