‘The Dream Collector (Mexico City)’ is a five channel synchronised video installation for monitor presentation. Filmed in parks across Mexico City, the piece sets out to collect dreams from strangers, all voluntarily asleep in public locations throughout the city. It seeks to record the impossible, a moment of utter privacy, which arguably can never be communicated as any dream telling is already a moment of translation. The sleeping body is fragile, open and when sleeping in public we make ourselves utterly vulnerable. However, the momentary appropriation of public space as a private refuge may also act as a temporary resistance against the insistence of the city on movement and activity. This tension between vulnerability and privacy of the person within the public urban space is at the core of the work. To make ‘The Dream Collector’, Manchot filmed members of the public who are found asleep, each for the entire duration of their sleep, from ten minutes to two hours. On waking the people are asked whether they can recollect any dreams from this very moment of sleep and if so are invited to narrate the dream to camera.
