Württembergischer Kunstverein
—
Denisa Lehocká
Sleeping with a Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life
From October 19, 2019, to January 12, 2020, the Württembergischer Kunstverein is showing the most comprehensive version of the exhibition Sleeping with a Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life, which was previously sketched out in Greece, China, and the Czech Republic. The project’s curator, Ruth Noack, has invited more than 40 artists from different cultural contexts to negotiate contemporary politics of sleep and dreaming. In recent decades, sleep has been turned into a resource, tied to production, consumption, warfare, and biopolitics, while people are simultaneously enticed to sleep less and to sleep more productively. How, then, can we keep dreaming?
Yet history shows that sleep can turn resistant, for instance when someone sleeps while they should be working or sleeps where they are not supposed to, say in public space. And to dream can be seen as an act toward imagining the good life, as in Martin Luther King’s famous sentence: “I have a dream . . .”
The curatorial model of Sleeping with a Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life posits itself against an art industry’s paradigms of efficiency and production, which stand in
no relation to real conditions of production and often deprive exhibitions of their potentiality. The exhibition is instead taken as a medium, which gives us an opportunity to share knowledge and create new meaning.
Begun in 2018 as a series of exhibition sketches, supported jointly by the smallest of institutions, by the curator and the artists who themselves contributed sketches, time, and know-how, Sleeping with a Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life continually evolves with each iteration. At each station, new sketches are added and old ones further fleshed out. Besides the presentation of works, which are developed further, new productions will also be shown at Württembergischer Kunstverein. In addition, the works of the past stations will be presented in an archive in the exhibition room. The memory of the exhibition travels from place to place and is presented in the same way as the new works.
This is not a classic traveling exhibition, but a work in progress. It changes with each respective location and its conditions. It learns from people and from the works of art. Within this open framework, we ask: Can sleep be reclaimed from the clutches of late capitalism? Can it gain subversive force? Can the acts of sleeping and dreaming be imagined as a resistant political deed? Would the sleeper be able to dream up a better life, a better future?
Biography
Born 1971 in Trenčin, lives and works in Bratislava, SK
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2025
Untitled 2025, Lombardi—Kargl, Vienna
2023
Lehocká for National Gallery, Tatra banka Donation for SNG Collections, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
POINT, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
2021
untitled, Kunsthalle Bratislava, Bratislava
2021, Collective, Bratislava, Bratislava
2018
Futura, Prague
2016
Luno 550, Fait galerie, Brno
Gandy Gallery, Bratislava
2015
Dite, Dům Umění, České Budějovice
2014
Denisa Lehocká and Eva Kotakova, Hunt Kastner, Prague
2013
Denisa Lehocká, Sammlung Friedrichshof, Vienna
2012
Denisa Lehocká 2012, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
2011
Try to describe the colour of pure (still) water, my dear., Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe
2010
Denisa Lehocká 1991-2010, GJK, Trnava
2009
no places no frontiers, Dominik art project, Krakow
tranzit, Bratislava
2008
Austrian Cultural Institute, Prague
2005
Moravská galerie, Brno
Landscape, with Boris Ondreička, BAK, Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht
2001
Galerie MXM, Prague
2000
Múzeum V. Löfflera, Košice
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025
The Neurobiology of Love, Krupa Art Foundation, Wrocław
2024
Reversed Objects, Ludwig Múzeum, Budapest
Body at Play, Georg Kargl BOX, Vienna
2023
Hard/Soft Textil und Keramik in der zeitgenössischen Kunst, MAK, Vienna
2022
I Had a Dog and a Cat, curated by Hana Ostan Ozbolt, Georg Kargl Fine Arts, Vienna
Twilight Zone / Material Narratives, Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Eisenstadt
2021
The Trafo-Clique. Material Narratives, Kunstverein Eisenstadt, Eisenstadt
2020
_SNÍVAJ!?_ / DREAM!?, Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
2019
Sleeping with a Vengeance, Dreaming of a Life, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart
Transmediale, Import Projects and HKW, Berlin
2018
Women on paper, Espace de l’art Concret, Mouans-Sartoux
2017
Empire of The Senseless, Meetfactory, Prague
TŘETÍ MYSL. Jiří Kovanda a (Ne)možnost spolupráce, National Gallery Prague, Prague
2015
The school of Kyiv, Kyiv Biennial, Kyiv
Thirtyone, KUG, Priština
Skrytá řeč rostlin, National Gallery Prague, Prague
The Soft Codes, Wroclaw Contemporary Museum, Wroclaw
2014
Report on the Construction of a Spaceship Module, New Museum, NYC
On Generation and Corruption, BWA Contemporary Art Gallery/Galeria Sztuki Wspolczesnej, Katowice
2013
Lapidárium, Galerie Jaroslava Frganera, Prague
2010
...and don't forget the flowers, Moravská galerie, Brno
2009
Gender Check, MUMOK, Stiftung Ludwig, Vienna
2008
Cutting Realities - Gender Strategies in Art, Austrian Cultural Forum, NYC
Mediation Biennale 8, ZAMEK Culture Centre, Poznaň
Family Affairs, Kunstverein Ulm
Re-Reading the Future, International Triennale of Contemporary Art, National Gallery Prague, Prague
Micronarratives, Museum of Modern Art, St. Etienne
2007
Form Follows Risk, Futura, Prague / Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
48th October Salon - Temptation of small realities – micro-communities, Belgrade Cultural Center, Belgrade
2006
Auditorium, Stage, Backstage, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt am Main
Narratives - 35/65+: Two Generations, Kunsthaus Graz Landesmuseum Joanneum, Graz
Kontakt, MUMOK, Stiftung Ludwig Vienna AT & tranzit workshops, Bratislava
2005
The Giving Person, Palazzo delle arti Napoli, Naples
2004
Stadt In Sicht, Kunstlerhaus, Vienna
Anxiety of Influence, Stadtgalerie Bern, Bern
Cordially Invited, BAK, basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht
2003
Now What? On Hope and Other Misunderstanding, BAK, Basis voor Actuele Kunst, Utrecht
2002
Fragile, Daejeon Museum of Art, Daejeon
Nomad, Brugs Cultuurcentrum, Brugge
Women Of The World, White Columns, NYC
Pass me the Butterfly, DUMBO Art Cener, NYC
2001
Event. Image. Clone, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn
2000
Body-Space / Nets and other creations, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
borderline sydrome / energies of denfence, Manifesta 3, Lublijana
1999
Slovak Art for Free, 48. Biennale di Venezia: Pavilion of Slovak Republic, Venice
1996
60/90, 4th Annual exhibition of SCCA Slovakia, Soros Centers for Contemporary Art, Bratislava
Biblio (Selection)
Denisa Lehocká, Collective, SK, 2022
Denisa Lehocká, Schlebrügge, AT, 2014
Denisa Lehocká, Slovenská národná galéria, SK, 2012
Denisa Lehocká, tranzit.sk, SK, 2009
Collections (Selection)
Kontakt, Erste Bank Group Collection, Vienna
EVN Collection, Vienna
Sammlung Friedrichshof, Vienna, ATEuropean Investment Bank, Luxembourg
Fiorucci Art Trust, Monaco & London
Societé Generale, Paris
The Daniel and Florence Guerlain Collection, Les Mesnuls
Fait, Brno
Artfond, Bratislava
Collective Collection, Bratislava
Slovak National Gallery, Bratislava
NG, Nitra
PGU, Žilina
GJK, Trnava
And private: Slovakia, Czechia, Poland, Austria, Hungary, Germany, France, Monaco, Belgium, Japan, UK, USA
Residencies, Awards, Grants
2021
Startstipendium für Fotografie, Bmkoes
Wojda Residency, Steinbrunn
2019
Moriumius Resideny, Ishinomaki
Landxcapes Visual Art, Bjcem
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