Paul Schneggenburger's Sleep in Love

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Sleep in Love
by Paul Schneggenburger

"Best Photograph of Paris Photo 2017!"
Karl Lagerfeld

Take part in this unique art project and get a large fine art print of your Sleep in Love !

Taking place at the Boutique Hotel ALTSTADT VIENNA,

from Nov. 2024 - Dec. 2025 !

Sleep in Love is a unique, interactive art project, in which lovers, families and singles can take part directly, having their picture taken overnight whilst asleep.

The picture: a long exposure of one whole night’s sleep in elegant, black bedsheets. Your sleep is captured on one single analog negative without any digital alteration, like image assembling.

A hand crafted 4x5'' (10x12cm) large format camera is placed above you and your loved one(s) and mounted on a framework. In this way every position in which you as participants are asleep become visible, also partially overlapping. This creates a unique, very intimate, and private portrait of yourselves.

Because Sleep in Love takes place in 2025 at the Boutique Hotel ALTSTADT VIENNA - one of Vienna’s most extravagant art hotels - you are going to live through an unforgettable experience, surrounded by art, design and luxury…as well as taking home your very special, high quality framed fine art print!

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The Boutique Hotel Altstadt Vienna.

Your picture will be taken here: #36 - Josef Hoffmann Suite

Should the Josef Hoffmann Suite Large not be available at your desired date, it will take place in one of these two other Suites Large:

Suite Large #19 - Violet Suite

Foto © Marisa Vranjes

Suite Large #9 by Matteo Thun - Felix Suite

Foto © Cathrine Stukhard

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Procedures when taking part in Sleep in Love:

Once you have decided to take part and have booked your Sleep in Love, we will meet in the Hotel's Salon the evening before the photo is taken. I will take my time to personally clarify all the details with you and answer your questions.
The photo installation has already been set up and prepared in you suite in the hotel. All you have to do now is go to sleep and let the art happen for you.

You will be completely undisturbed while you sleep, with no one entering the room during the night. The next morning, you can sleep until 10am and enjoy breakfast at the hotel. In the meantime, me or my assistant are uninstalling the setup.

You are of course very welcome to extend your stay at the Altstadt Vienna! In the same room where your photo will be taken or in another room of your choice (depending on availability). Participants of Sleep in Love receive a 10% discount on the hotel room rate for the rest of their stay! You will be given a discount code when booking your Sleep in Love.

The Negative will then be developed and scanned and you will be sent a jpg of your image. Now it's up to you to make the decision whether I can use the image for my artwork or if you want it to be a unique just for you.

Your fine art print will then be printed for you in the desired size in the laboratory and framed. This process takes three to five weeks. The finished framed fine art print is then be delivered to your desired destination.

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Throughout the years from 2010 – now, the images of Sleep in Love (formally known as “The Sleep Of The Beloved”) have been internationally exhibited, published and some of them are to be found in private and public art collections.

The series by now comprises more than 120 pictures, which were created in as many nights, starting in November 2024 - December 2025 with the new name "Sleep in Love" at the Hotel ALTSTADT VIENNA.

The concept behind Sleep in Love

What happens while two lovers sleep? Do they sleep next to each other, each by themselves, or do they share certain sensations, places or emotions? Are they engaged in a nocturnal lovers’ dance, perhaps an unconscious enactment of tenderness, or do they turn their backs on each other? Is there a union with the other, or a union with the self?

These were the questions I asked myself when I started the project in 2009. It was called "The Sleep of the Beloved" then. Throughout the years since 2010 "The Sleep of the Beloved" has gotten more and wider published, exhibited and known. Loved ones from all over the world, who see and are touched by the beauty of the images come to Vienna to have their own picture taken.

I photograph people, and perhaps the tracks they leave: intimate moments of people's sleep. The participants or lovers sleep in a black bed, in a space that is illuminated by a dim light where they are being photographed throughout the entire night. The lovers trust me, accept their exposure and vulnerability. Some are nervous or restless and don‘t sleep well. Others report of a particularly deep sleep.