Biography

Maritea Dæhlin is an interdisciplinary artist who lives and works in Norway and Mexico, second generation Cameroonian. Her work, spanning between video, performance art, sound, theater and text, is shaped by shifting geographies and contexts, being multilingual, non-linear and sometimes absurd.

Dæhlin has a BA in Devised Theatre with Digital Arts at Dartington College of Arts (2007-2010) and was an associated artist at Black Box teater (2020-2021). Her work has been nominated for the Norwegian critic’s prize (2020) and for the Heddapris (2022).

In 2024 she created Sleep Locks the Bones in collaboration with Corentine JPM Leven, Truls Hannemyr, Soh Tokunaga amongst others. They now wish to create a new public project drawing from this auditive indoor experience around the subject of sleep. 

Artistic project

We wish to make a new outdoor work (title still to come) drawing from “Sleep Locks the Bones” (2024), a sound installation/performance where text and voice stand at the center of a collective experience around the theme of sleep. Audiences, in small groups, were invited to settle into a comfortable position, relax and then listen to a voice that fails to do just that: to relax. The piece intertwines language, rhythms, narratives, and dreams, creating a vibrant scenic auditory landscape.

For the outdoor version we want to explore how to create the premises for sleep in a public space. The public space is supposed to be for all of us, but we can see a “defensive architecture” in most cities, that is about discouraging people to sleep in public.

Is it possible to allow yourself to just be, to let go of the alertness that makes you constantly read your surroundings? Does everyone have the opportunity for such a state of being? There are some of us who feel are always have to be awake.

The project will reflect around these subjects and wants to create a place for sleep in the public space.

Format: installation / bed

Size of audience: one to one (might include passersby)

Specific location: outdoor space

Timing / duration: day/night installation of 20min each person (tbc)