Caught in eight-hour waking and sleeping patterns, flexible working hours, body clocks and the social pressure to be non-stop available, productive and awake, sleep represents an almost resistant state – a phase of non-production and non-consumption. 

Yet even when resting, our bodies can be digitally measured and optimised. Sleepless nights are juxtaposed with the creative state of being rested, and fantasy worlds alternate with nightmare scenarios turned into reality. The concept of sleep is as multi-faceted as the artistic examination of it: at the Ruhr Ding: Schlaf 2023, numerous projects in the southern Ruhr area testify to this.The Ruhr Ding: Schlaf marks the end of a three-part exhibition series presented throughout the region by Urbane Künste Ruhr under the artistic direction of Britta Peters. The wandering exhibition will take place in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Essen, Witten and Gelsenkirchen in 2023, shifting back to the Ruhr area’s industrial history with the beginnings of mining.