"Die Vernunft ist gerade sehr schläfrig"
Irish artist Isabel Nolan presents her installation "Dreamshook" at the Irish Pavilion of the 61st Venice Biennale, exploring late medieval parallels to contemporary crisis through tapestries, drawings, and metal sculptures. The exhibition centers on the figure of Aldus Manutius, the 15th-century Venetian printer and humanist, and examines liminal states, dream worlds, and the fluid boundaries between the immaterial and the real. Nolan, who invented the title word "Dreamshook" to evoke being shaken by a dream, discusses the political and existential dimensions of dreaming in an interview.
Nolan's pavilion matters because it connects historical moments of upheaval—the late Middle Ages and our own era—through the lens of art and dream experience. By foregrounding Manutius's humanist commitment to publishing only works of moral and philosophical value, the exhibition implicitly critiques contemporary commercial culture and affirms art's capacity to make private, intangible experiences communicable. As Ireland's representative at one of the world's most prestigious art events, Nolan's project contributes to ongoing conversations about art's role in navigating uncertainty and fostering intersubjective understanding.