It is with great pleasure that Galeria NAVE announces its participation in the special program The Screen at Art Brussels 2025, with the video work of the artist Mariona Berenguer.

LA SIESTA, 2023 

video loop, 6’48’’

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Contrary to the prevailing assumption that sleep is an expression of passivity and inertia, the video loop La Siesta (2023) by Mariona Berenguer reveals it to be an autonomous sphere of activity and a retreat from daily demands. Sleep does not contradict wakefulness, but rather is an extension and reorganisation of it, essential for maintaining our biological functions and strengthening social relations. The video shows how consciously and unconsciously experienced realities converge in the realm of dreams and how their interactions manifest themselves in the dreaming body.

Set in the liminal space between a vigilant mind and an exhausted body, La Siesta features an animalistic creature on the threshold of sleep. The camera remains tightly fixed on the restless movements of its eye. Neither fully opened nor closed, it seems to rush through information and emotions, absorbed in the fluid imagery of dreams. Indeed, during the phase of REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep, the brain is highly active, while the body remains paralysed to prevent it from reacting to subconscious stimuli. The eye marks a threshold between inner and outer worlds, turning inward as much as outward to grapple with the velocity and intensity of both lived and imagined realities. In this intimate space, the gaze of the camera seems to intrude like a voyeur, evoking a sense of unease and uncanniness. The artist likens the viewing experience to watching a film blindfolded—where events unfold beyond the field of vision yet deeply affect our perception.

The title, La Siesta, conjures the image of a nap on hot summer days, a fleeting moment of pause under stifling heat. Yet the nap is haunted by a soundscape of domestic noises—the hum of a dishwasher, the soft clicking of keyboards—that creep into the subconscious and stimulate its imagination. As the video loops endlessly, it reinforces the relentless progression of time, where rest and activity are inextricably intertwined. In this interplay, Berenguer crafts a dual narrative: one unfolding in the internal realm of dreams, the other in the ceaseless motion of their surroundings. Even in repose, we remain tethered to the world’s restless momentum.

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