Nourish them with Art | I want to sleep well

I WANT TO SLEEP WELL

Performance/artistic installation
Anna Borghi
Pho Cap, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
March 2015

PERFORMANCE

Movements and gestures to let the kids think about their level of "comfort” while they sleep. The concept of "sleeping well" is seen with a double meaning, making children think about sleeping as a metaphor of life.

MAKING OF

In a silent laboratory, where the artist guides the children just through the motions, we build a pillow made of plastic and filling materials. The surface of the pillow is painted with finger paints and everyone stands for a happy thought, the one that allows you to sleep well at night. At the end, we pull a series of threads and hang all pillows. Before going out, those who want to, write their thoughts on a plastic panel on the wall.

I WANT TO SLEEP WELL

THE RESULT

The balcony and the room are filled with colours, the hanging pillows represent the desire to "sleep well", but also to "live well".
Somebody represented their nightmares in black, others expressed strong and solar colours, vitality, joy, but also quiet ' with a blue sky covered with stars.
No one stepped back, and all these pillows together represent the children of Pho Cap and their desire to move forward, in the best way.

THE UNEXPECTED

Considering all this enthusiasm, teacher Khanh has decided to hold a competition: on the weekend the kids at home will have to make a “real” pillow and the most 'beautiful will be rewarded. The proposal had a lot of success among the kids and on Monday they brought to school their creations. Someone ' was helped by parents at home, something that is not granted. We create another installation with these "real pillows" and everyone is enthusiastic. Unexpectedly, we reached the ultimate goal of any artistic work: get out of the field of art to meet that of life.

ANNA BORGHI

Anna Borghi was born in Italy in 1980. In 2004 she graduated in Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts of Brera in Milan and in 2010 she had a degree in Communication for Cultural Heritage. Since 2004 she has showcased her artworks in collective and private exhibitions, and has taken part in contests and many national and international art fairs. Her artworks are also in important private collections.
Since 2007 she is art consultant at Italian museums and schools. In 2010 she moved to Vietnam, where she began to work with an NGO operating in the Vietnamese territory, and became responsible for the Art Project in the school for street children” in Ho Chi Minh City.
She lives and works in Vietnam, Milan and Istanbul, working as an artist and using her art to help disadvantaged children.
In 2013 the Italian Embassy in Vietnam showcased her exhibition Heavy rain, within the celebrations for the anniversary of consular relations between Italy and Vietnam.