It’s late at night. I’m not sure exactly what time, because my phone is off. I can see a giant circular screen which seems to be floating in midair like a moon. Dreamy images flit across its surface and the darkness is permeated with sounds of breaking waves and gently creaking wood. I could be on a ship, sailing across the sea. Or, perhaps, back in my mother’s womb.
Where I actually am is in a large hall inside the Beurs-World Trade Center in Rotterdam. For this year’s Rotterdam film festival, the space has been converted into the Sleepcinemahotel, an installation conceived by Thai film-maker and multimedia artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul. In films such as Tropical Malady, Syndromes and a Century and Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (which won the Palme d’Or at the 2010 Cannes film festival), Weerasethakul blurs the distinction between sleep and wakefulness, reality and dream.
The hotel consists of a seven platforms at different heights, each with a bed and a night stand. Canvas curtains can be pulled down to act as walls. Within view of the beds, a large round screen hangs from the ceiling at the end of the hall. A 120-hour stream of documentary clips from the archives of the EYE Film Institute in Amsterdam and the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision in Hilversum is projected on the round screen. The images are accompanied by a soothing soundtrack of waves and ships’ creaking.
Water, boats, nature, animals and people sleeping, a family of ducks jumping off a log into a stream; flowers blooming in closeup. Each clip lasts only a few seconds.
The hotel’s guests are offered a 20-hour window between check-in and check-out to immerse themselves in the pure pleasure of contemplation.
