SLEEPING BEAUTY is a sculpture which represents The Sleeping Lady in superhuman size, providing a model, display and a projection surface for the universal content: It concerns the past, present and future of human health and heritage, habitat and hospitality.
The Sleeping Lady is an emblematic statuette from Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum that was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981, as a site that bears unique testimony to a civilization that has disappeared (criterion III). The Sleeping Lady is an artistic masterpiece created in the Neolithic period, which represents one of those aspects of the islands’ prehistoric development denoting the uniqueness and cultural independence limited only to this spot on the planet. It became a unique Maltese icon. The Sleeping Lady was discovered by Sir Temi Zammit at the same time (1905-6), as he also identified unpasteurized goat milk (with the bacterium Brucellosis melitensis) as the cause for “Malta fever”. While both the cultural artifact and the disease proved to be endemic in Malta for some time, Sir Temi Zammit demonstrated in person how the universal scientific rigour and innovation become the common feature of both natural and cultural sciences – bacteriology and medicine as well as archaeology.
In this spirit, SLEEPING BEAUTY is designed to turning (in-)visible phenomena into experiences by addressing some of the prioritized Sustainable Development Goals shared by economic and political leaders, culture and education, transport and tourism as well as general public. It combines the shared universal goals of linking the prosperity of “big H´s” such as Human, Health, Habitat, History, Heritage and Hospitality. It offers paths to deeper meaning by addressing some of the basic sciences for sustainable development: microbiology, material science, medicine, archaeology and anthropology.
A sample of patina – the natural organic film – shall be removed from the surface of the The Sleeping Lady and placed under a microscope. The analyzed specimens shall be transmitted as images on the extern surface of the object from which the patina has been removed or displayed on its foundation. The simultaneous multimedia presentation of the related microcosm and macrocosm shall provide aesthetic, factual and educational material to the public. As such, SLEEPING BEAUTY is designed to provoke resonance and foster respect for the cultural heritage, its deterioration and remediation.
SLEEPING BEAUTY tells parallel stories about the matter-of-factness even besides the cultural artefact from the prehistoric period: “When the times get tough, the bacillus gets pregnant. The bacilli usually split evenly and homogeneously. As soon as tough times come, one of the two daughter cells or the mother cell transforms into a non-survivable protective cover. In this manner one of the two cells can outlive for centuries to reach new green habitats. The other will never again come alive. Affectionateself-sacrifice death and altruism are seen in the evolution theory too as the better survivalprinciple, as ‘kill in order not to be killed’.” (W. E. Krumbein, Der Tod und die Mikrobe, was mich wieder an Hofmannsthals Thor und Tod erinnert [Lori Oliwenstein, 1996], 1997.) SLEEPING BEAUTY is hence also a homage to Wolfgang E. Krumbein, the scientist with whom Sabine Kacunko collaborated and started her BIG BACTERIA journey twenty years ago.
SLEEPING BEAUTY questions life under conditions of decay and its apparent reproducibility, while rethinking relations between the inherited and acculturated and finally focusing on future of cohabitation of humans with myriads of living beings.
