I Came Here to Sleep

ALEXANDER HAHN

electronic media artist

I CAME HERE TO SLEEP

(1997, 3:00', loop, circular SD video projection)

Recorded in Kairouan, Tunisia, June 1997. Shot through the lattice work of the Hotel's mashrabiya, the oriel window in Arab culture that provides the occupant with a good view of the street whilst remaining invisible.

The pans and zooms have been created digitally, re-imaging the original fixed camera time lapse footage.

For Galileo, the telescope was an instrument of highest knowledge. He who held it in his hands might well be king and ruler of God's work. Here, the object under observation is not the heavenly spheres, but memory that loses itself in forgetting.