“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