Durational Performance
Freedom of Sleep (I would prefer not to perform) is a anti-performance originally commissioned for the group show with the title Up Till Now. Reconsidering historical Performances and Actionist Art from GDR at Museum of Contemporary Art (Galerie für Zeitgenössische Kunst) Leipzig. In this context the artist was sleeping in one of the galleries on two days during opening hours.
A second version of the performance was later presented at Stellwerk Kassel. On this occasion four of the art space’s curators were sleeping in the gallery during opening reception. Most recently the work is included in the group exhibition States of Uncertain Domesticities (2025) at Haus Kunst Mitte in Berlin and was performed by the artist during the opening reception. Each performance is documented on video.
»Stefan Hurtig’s art work questions the praise of constant activity and self-promotion in neoliberal working conditions. The distinct and creative nonconformist subject has become a new kind of role model. If any rebellious act is still supporting normative orders, then why just not do nothing? Hurtig’s performance Freedom of Sleep pays homage to Herman Melville’s literary character Bartleby (Bartleby the Scrivener, 1856) who by repeating the mantra ‘I would prefer not to’ refuses any attempt of being appropriated by society. (…)«
Julia Kurz and Anna Jehle, curators of the exhibition Up Till Now (2013)
Featured in the exhibitions: