“Rosa Barba’s Somnium (…) draws together many of the key concerns that have emerged in the artist’s oeuvre over the past decade. Its point of departure is a short story by the German astronomer Johanner Kepler. Although framed as a dream, this tale of a lunar voyage was devised to validate the radically seditious thesis of a heliocentric universe […] Borrowing Kepler’s title in tribute, she has drawn upon both his tale and, equally importantly, his remarkable achievement in establishing a new ontology of vision. (excerpt from Lynne Cooke, “Suspended Stories: Rosa Barba’s strategic narrativity”, in: Rosa Barba – White is an Image, Hatje Cantz 2011)
The recordings for the 16mm film Somnium (2011) were made in Rotterdam on a site planned as a future harbor which will become operational in 2030. The landscape introduced therein is itself surreal, strange and uninhabited, and captures the science-fiction tone of Kepler’s story. The boundaries between reality and fiction resolve into the poetic language of the film’s narrative, accompanied by the music of Jan St. Werner.
Somnium, 2011
16mm film transferred to video, color, sound; 19:20 min
Images 1, 2, 3: Film still © Rosa Barba
Image 4: Installation view at Secession, Vienna, 2017. Photo: Oliver Ottenschläger © Rosa Barba
Somnium, 2011 has been on display at the following locations:
Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, 2023
Void, Derry, Northern Ireland, 2018
tabakalera, San Sebastian, 2018
Kunsthalle Bremen, 2018
vistamare, Milan, 2018
Malmö Phd, 2018
Malmö Konsthall, 2017
Museo Amparo, Peubla, Mexico, 2017
Secession, Vienna, 2017
Colombia University Wallach Gallery, 2017
MIT List Visual Arts Center, 2015
Albertinum, Dresden, 2015
BIM, Buenos Aires, 2014
Highline New York City 2013
Somnium, 2011 has been screened at the following locations: :
Video Ex, Zürich, 2022
Fabra i Coats Art Center Barcelona, 2014
International Filmfestival Rotterdam 2011
VDB:
Videoex Experimental Film and Video Festival, Zurich, 2018
Amherst Cinema, Amherst, Massachusetts, 2016
Wisconsin Union, Directorate Film Committee, Madison, Wisconsin, 2016
The Journal Gallery Brooklyn, New York, 2015
International House Phila., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2013
Rencontres Internationales Paris, Paris, 2013
Antimatter, Victoria, British Columbia, 2012
29th Kassel Documentary Film and Video Festival, Kssel, 2012
Union Docs, BROOKLYN, New York, 2012
Rencontres Internationales Paris, Paris, 2012