PEACE NEVER SLEEPS/dOCUMENTA (13) 2012

Mia Florentine Weiss’s 24-hour performance is an open-ended allusion to the “bed-ins” staged by Yoko Ono and John Lennon in protest against the Vietnam War. It captures the curious ambiguity of the concept of “peaceful” protest. It reflects once again the illusiveness of a “place of protection”. And yet it is ultimately arrested in open space, where the performance artist is exposed to the elements but also caught in slumber.

The “Bed of Peace” Weiss uses here came from an isolation cell at a German prison in Kassel, where over 600 prisoners were held until it was closed in 2010. On the last day of the 13th Documenta in 2012, Mia Florentine Weiss stayed in it for her 24-hour performance “Peace Never Sleeps”. (“My bed” was one of the answers Weiss received to the question raised in her video installation “What is Your Place of Protection”). In the coming years, the bed—and the artist—will depart upon a worldwide journey, travelling to perform wherever peace is needed.