The DreamLab Project

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

 The DreamLab Project exists as both a virtual and a real space. It uses dream imagery in a bid to access and unleash authentic human experiences and seeks a revolution against the constraint of the rational mind. In times when the rules of society feel increasingly oppressive Cassola invites users and visitors to interact with the DreamLab Project and follow a few basic steps that bring to the surface the subconscious thought of the collectiveness. She borrows from the Surrealists the belief that the creativity that comes from deep within a person’s subconscious, as in dreaming, could be more powerful and authentic than any product of conscious thought.

THE EXHIBITION

 What room is left for internal images, for dreams and visions, in an era besieged by external ones? In today’s constant flood of information, the artist feels the urge of reconciling the self with the universe, the subjective with the collective, the specific with the general. The starting point of Cassola’s investigation are Carl Gustav Jung’s theories, particularly his Red Book (2009), an illustrated manuscript that the famous Swiss psychologist worked on for over sixteen years and the use of art as therapy, which the artist approached when at Casa Das Palmeiras, a home for mental patients in Rio de Janeiro, funded in 1956.

Conceived as a complete installation DreamLab opens with an immersive work, Follow Your Dreams, They Know the Way (2018), a sum of veils suspended from the ceiling to start the viewer on their personal journey in a meditation on inner images and dreams that runs throughout the show. With a contemplative video, Collective Consciousness (2018) , that combines images captured from the internet next to a 1940 silk nightgown she recovered from her grandmother’s dowry, the artist seeks a way to reflect upon the influence of the web on today’s dreams. The Internet has become a resource to fulfil our dreams but how much are our dreams influenced by it? The installation I don't dream. We all dream (2018), a projection that reprises an abstract photograph Cassola shot for her series A Fantastic Journey (2014) a combination of colors and shapes meant to activate the soul, on a bed and an oneiric and symbolic pencil drawing, inspired by dreams. Visitors are invited to sit or lie on the bed and enter that bedroom where colors and collective memories blend together. In a world where words are being replaced by images, the exercise of the imagination through writing and drawing becomes a recurring motif in the exhibition. The featured works, all pieces the artist created inspired by the dreams she collected, also include: A Blonde Girl said she came in search of the crystal ball (2018), bronze and crystal; I am surrounded by snakes, they crawl all around me (2018), bronze and quartz; I am trapped in a hallway (2018), glass, mirror, rope. From the Energy painting series: Feels like home (2016) andI am sailing in the Ocean and find a gold treasure (2018).