Structure for Rest

Ohad Meromi’s Structure for Rest is an installation for daydreaming in which the audience is invited to collectively rest their heads and fantasize about a different world. Here, the notion of daydreaming takes from Marxist philosopher Ernst Bloch and his book The Principle of Hope. The daydreaming that Bloch favored suggested opening up to new horizons of collective experience, a vision of solidarity and fraternity.

Structure for Rest is based on the motion repertoire of workers. In our current reality sleep is not rest, but yet another charging dock, like that of the smartphone. It is managed by medications, eroded by flickering screens, and milked dry by the routine of a technological society. In past times, daydreaming may have been considered escapist, idle, and politically indifferent, but in the political economy that darkens around us, it has a key role in preserving the principle of hope. The installation is intended to have multiple lives, being installed in Guardian Angel Settlement House and Thrift Store during the run of Counterpublic, and roving in its component parts within The Luminary in the following seasons.