2026 Weltoffenes Berlin Fellowship

Sleep Spindles is an investigation into sleep as a liminal state that resists the capitalist logic of efficiency and defies optimization. The research project examines sleep from multiple perspectives, covering scientific literature, its representations in fiction and children’s literature, as well as contemporary attempts and rituals to regulate it. It will employ various methods such as working with a sleep specialist to record the REM and non-REM cycles of people from different working conditions and life circumstances; interviewing businesspeople attempting to “hack” sleep; and engaging with scientists working with targeted dream incubation devices aiming to turn slumber into a time for productivity/learning. It will also meander in children’s books explaining this elusive phenomenon to kids, and attend to sleep tourism-a new trend in travel industry, where guests’ biodata are collected and optimized to resolve ongoing sleep issues. Scholars such as Roger Ekirch, Jonathan Crary and Josh Cohen, and philosopher Jean-Luc Nancy will be guiding voices throughout this investigation. The project will culminate in a two-channel video installation, filmed in a sleep hotel with a voice-over text distilling the materials from the research while weaving in a personal narrative. The installation will be accompanied by a series of works on paper bringing together images from the research process.

The idea of rest—of downtime—is part of the circadian rhythms of all living beings. Yet, productivity culture, along with the prevailing political and material conditions we live under, aim to synch it with capitalist clock and eradicate its potential for resistance derived from its inherent passivity. Taking its title from the name given to the 0.5–2 second bursts of neural activity (11–16 Hz) happening in stage 2 Non-REM sleep that is crucial for memory consolidation, Sleep Spindles is an extensive undertaking that explores sleep in its all aspects, including its place in our personal and social lives, as well as its effect on the Earth and broader global systems.

Gülşah Mursaloğlu (1989) completed her BA in Sociology at Boğaziçi University in Istanbul and received her MFA degree from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. In her works, she explores materiality, matter’s agency, and human and non-human temporalities. Her installations, which emerge after an in-depth and extensive research process, don’t remain stable in form and rather manifest themselves as dynamic and fluid systems through their ephemeral nature. Recent exhibitions include performing (un)expectations at Institut Français de Roumanie, Cluj-Napoca, RO (2025); Downtime, Spread too Thin (solo), SANATORIUM, Istanbul, TR (2025); I Only Work with Lost and Found, Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin, DE (2024); Vicious Cycle, Art Laboratory Berlin, DE (2023) and Memory in Our Bones, Green Art Gallery Dubai, UAE (2022). She has participated in residencies and fellowships including Goldrausch Künstlerinnenprojekt, Berlin, DE (2024); Arnis Residency, DE (2022); SAHA Studio, Istanbul, TR (2020); sundaymorning@ekwc, Oisterwijk, NL (2019), and the Istanbul Biennial Production and Research Programme (2018–19).