Dominika Olszowy
Yawn of a Sleepy Heart

With Yawn of a Sleepy Heart, Dominika Olszowy imagines the bedroom of Veļu Māte, the Latvian god­dess who rules the world of the dead. Olszowy’s instal­lation under­takes an exploration of death, its traditional manifestations and the space it is given in con­tem­porary cul­ture. The arran­gement of the home is inten­ded here as a field for analysis, where paral­lels can be drawn between interior decoration and introspec­tion. The space of the bedroom evokes notions of shel­ter, rest, and dreams, but equally insom­nia, night­mares and immobility; facing the void, from hiber­nation to eter­nal sleep, death’s own bed offers ambivalent respite.

 

The installation was prepared as part of the second edition of the Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art.