ANABELLE LACROIX
I am a French Australian curator and writer. Working with exhibitions, public programming, and radio, I am particularly interested in the expanded fields of curating and writing, involving performance, sound, speech and publishing.
I am a current practice-based PhD candidate at UNSW Art, Design and Architecture (Sydney), focusing on developing curatorial methods for sleepless bodies. I am one of the editors of the upcoming Flaneur Magazine Issue 09 which explores the Boulevard Périphérique (Paris ring road), and a current lecturer at The New Scool Paris campus.
I recently curated ‘Freedom of Sleep’, an 8-month project at Fondation Fiminco in Paris in 2020-2021 comprised of an exhibition, public programs, an online publication and an interdisciplinary conference co-presented with the Brain Space Laboratory. ‘Freedom of Sleep’ explored sleeplessness as a space for awakening and action. This curatorial research reflected upon the desynchronisation of our bodies and society through their relations to norms, efficiency, attention, alertness, free time and inertia, as well as movements of collapse. This involved reconsidering anxiety as ‘alarm bell’ and the alternance of sleep/wake phases beyond the norm, as rest against expenses of energy.
Together with Nicolas Montgermont, I developed Radio Insomnia for the Sociability of Sleep exhibition that will be presented in July 2023.
In a few words, explain what drew you to this project.
The Sociability of Sleep is a very powerful framework that intersects so well with research and projects I have been developing during the past few years around the politics, poetics and aesthetics of sleeplessness, exploring ideas of desynchronization and for listening with insomnia. Sleep equity is simply one of the most urgent and complex topics today.
Q & A
How would you describe your relationship to sleep?
I would say that I am at peace with my sleep. I’ve had very troubled sleep, which can be very frustrating, but I’ve also learned to welcome those moments and learn from them.
Why do you find sleep a compelling site for research?
I find sleep very compelling because it is at the intersection of the personal and the collective, questions of gender, race, class as well as our relationship to labour, time and technologies.
Are you an early bird or night owl?
Both. I burn the candle on both ends! Honestly, I’m more of an early bird.
Do you enjoy taking naps? Why / why not?
Absolutely. Naps are a recuperation of energy against its spending, regardless of the time of day or night.
What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about sleep?
That sleep is uninterrupted!
Do you have any favourites/recommendations for cultural works that address sleep in some way?
Black Power Naps, they are a collective doing advocacy, installations, performances, sleep bags and magazines – I can’t recommend it enough.