Outremonde is a series of living exhibitions initiated by Théo Mercier in 2021. Like a “gray zone” where the white cube of the museum and the black box of the theater meet, this series of exhibition-performances brings together for the first time the artist’s two practices as sculptor and stage director. The first Outremonde, presented in 2021 at the Collection Lambert in Avignon in collaboration with the Festival d’Avignon, served as a pilot for a three-part series that continued the following year with Outremonde II – Dream hunters at Luma Westbau Zurich (2022), then Outremonde III – The sleeping chapter at the Conciergerie in Paris (2022).

Using sand borrowed and sourced locally, The Sleeping Chapter is an experimental journey into the depths of night, REM sleep or conscious dreaming. Beneath the historic vaults of the Conciergerie in Paris, a vast landscape of ruined columns and unmade sandbeds emerges from the ground, silently guarded by sand dogs. Although these sculptures are inspired by the recumbent figures in the Basilique Saint-Denis and the Monastère de Brou, they feature the city’s “sleepers” rather than the “recumbents” of the Middle Ages, eternally accompanied by their faithful stone dogs. The imprint of bodies, the folds of sheets, the echo of breaths and the pulsation of light, site-specifically created by the artist for the famous monument, materialize these invisible presences and stories.

Moving from the deserted to the living landscape, a series of psychedelic, initiatory performances explore the exhibition’s mystery. Guided by an omniscient child, the public embarks on a sleep tour punctuated by somnambulistic encounters. By adopting a child’s and animal’s point of view of the night, The Sleeping Chapter finally gives substance to the knowledge and hell that live in our beds.