Eleanor is happy to present The Sleeper, an exhibition by Andy and John.

The Sleeper has already slept in many different places, in a variety of situations not necessarily the most suited to the practice of sleeping. He has still never slept in an art gallery, on opening night. For him, this is a first. So he arrives very motivated. The artist conceived of a bed that is installed in the space by tossing a mattress on the floor. The man is invited to lie down. He lies down. Everyone waits for him to fall asleep. He falls asleep. He is filmed while he sleeps.

The idea here is to produce a film that begins the moment the man falls asleep and ends when he wakes up. The idea is also for there to be no break between the production of the film and its public presentation. The film is done in one take, which means no cutting, no editing.

Once the Sleeper is up, filming stops and it’s time to move on directly to the screening of the film.

The film will be screened at the rate of one showing per day, a single showing. The film’s length will determine the hours the venue is open: the exhibition opens, the screening begins, the film ends, the exhibition closes. The exhibition will last for six weeks, including weekends, closed on Tuesdays. The hours of operation will be announced after opening night.

Andy chose to entrust the role of the Sleeper to his friend John. John is a poet, he’s currently unemployed, he’s also a heavy sleeper. Andy openly says that if he hadn’t so often had the opportunity to see John sleeping in any and every circumstance – during a party with loud music, at a table in a restaurant, during a telephone conversation, while waiting for the bus, sitting on the toilet, reading or fucking – it wouldn’t have ever occurred to him to make him sleep in an art gallery.

By asking John to embody the Sleeper, Andy is inventing a job that makes the most of his friend’s expertise: permanent fatigue, a constant desire to sleep, pleasure while sleeping, the quality of his body at rest. It’s delicate work, but it’s still work, a little work likely to provide the benefits generally associated with working: the joy of the professional life, a rediscovered self-esteem, a blossoming social life and an improvement in material living conditions.

Andy had a text made for John. His heading: I’m not sleeping, I’m working. For the entire duration of the exhibition, it will be available to the public in the form of a double-sided sheet of loose-leaf paper placed at the reception desk.