sleepwalkers

Doug Aitken: sleepwalkers was originally presented from January 16–February 12, 2007.  The large scale cinematic installation was a joint project of The Museum of Modern Art and the New York–based public art organization Creative Time. This major public artwork was comprised of eight large-scale moving images projected onto the exterior of MoMA, enlivening the building’s architecture with the nocturnal journeys of five characters representing city dwellers—a bicycle messenger, an electrician, a postal worker, a businessman, and an office worker. 

Conceived by Doug Aitken specifically for the Museum’s broad expanses of glass, steel, and granite, sleepwalkers was inspired by the densely built environment of midtown Manhattan and portrays the metropolis as a living organism fueled by the desires, energies, and ambitions of its inhabitants.  Sleepwalkers entwines distinct storylines constructed around five archetypal New Yorkers, nocturnal beings who awaken as the sun sets, prepare to set out into the night, and make their way through the city to their disparate destinations.  As they move from the solitude of their personal and professional lives into the chaotic and rich interrelationships of their urban existences, their individual narratives are shown in juxtapositions on different surfaces of the Museum’s exterior, with moments of parallel synchronicity in their movements emphasizing both the solitude of their lives and their membership in the same urban community. 

Building on Aitken’s interest in collaborating with a range of artists, musicians, and filmmakers, sleepwalkers features a diverse cast of actors, including New York City street drummer Ryan Donowho (Broken Flowers, Strangers with Candy) as the bike messenger; musician and actor Seu Jorge (City of God, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) as the electrician; Chan Marshall (singer Cat Power) (North Country, V for Vendetta) as the postal worker; Donald Sutherland (M*A*S*H, Klute) as the businessman; and Tilda Swinton (Orlando, Chronicles of Narnia) as the office worker.

The protagonists of sleepwalkers take viewers through the physical and psychological archaeology of New York, through its subways, electrical grids, manholes, office buildings, and processing centers.  The work’s setting also serves as an artistic point of departure; filming for sleepwalkers took place in all five boroughs of New York City, at locations including the Atlantic Avenue Tunnel in Brooklyn; the Staten Island Skating Pavilion; the Lettera Sign Company, where Times Square signs are repaired, in the Bronx; a mail-sorting facility in Queens; the New York Transit Museum; and numerous other settings, including the streets of Harlem and the Lower East Side.  In addition to many recognizable locations, sleepwalkers takes viewers to virtually unseen areas of the city, including the abandoned subterranean tunnels under Atlantic Avenue in
Brooklyn, a long-closed heliport atop the MetLife Building in Manhattan, and behind the monumental neon lights of Times Square. 

Doug Aitken: sleepwalkers continues Aitken’s exploration of the ever-evolving ways in which people experience memory and narrative and relate to fast-paced urban environments.  During the past decade, the artist has created innovative contemporary video art by fracturing the narrative structures of his films across multiscreen environments.  His work has been exhibited in museums around the world, including The Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Centre Georges Pompidou, in Paris.  In 1999 he was awarded the International Prize at the Venice Biennale.  In 2004, Aitken’s installation Interiors (2002) was shown as part of the exhibition Hard Light at P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, a MoMA affiliate.