Giving My Back to the Night I Heard You Lying to a Giant - Third Giant

Part of The Watermill Center / CPR residency partnership

On May 9, 2011, Davide Balliano will present the third part of a project divided into five different acts, based on the structure and phases of a night of sleep at CPR - Center for Performance Research. Part one was presented at Location One in New York City in February and part two was presented at the Watermill Center on April 2.

A night of sleep is approximately seven hours long and divided into five phases, which repeat in cycles about three times. Passing through these phases, our mind fades out from reality, moving into unknown regions for unknown purposes. Science doesn't have a proven explanation for the objective goals of sleep. The definition of sleep is peculiar and similar to that of a coma, hibernation, or even death, the only difference being that sleep is painlessly reversible. We know that sleep is essential for recharging our immune system and growing muscle and bones, and we suppose that during sleep the brain archives information acquired during the day. Surprisingly, a few nights of not sleeping is enough to cause permanent brain damage and even death.

Each act of Giving My Back... will be inspired by the characteristics of one specific sleep phase. The entire project will symbolize a night of sleep. Each part will be a completely autonomous work, with a specific center and radically separated from the other four. The research will lead to a 21-hour (seven hours repeated three times) live performance.

Davide Balliano was born in Turin, Italy in 1983. In this city he began his studies and earned a Bachelor's degree in Graphic Arts. In 2002, he moved to Milan, where he earned a second degree in Photography at the c.f.p Riccardo Bauer. From June, 2004 to June, 2005, Balliano was a resident at the Benneton Group's Fabrica. Through an unemotional and minimal use of different media (performance, drawing, installation, video, and photography), his artistic research allows him to delve deeply into the most hidden aspects of the human mind, revealing their fragile structures and contradictions.

Balliano's works and performances have been shown at Location One, the Artists Space and PS1 Contemporary Art Center in New York, the Watermill Center, the Plymouth Arts Centre in Great Britain, and in New Zealand, Japan, and all across Europe. His portfolio has been recently exhibited in the Archive of Via Farini in the context of the event "NO SOULS FOR SALE" at the Tate Modern Gallery in London. He's one of the winners of the AOL 25 for 25 Award 2010. He lives and works in New York.

For reservations please email info@cprnyc.org