Connecting people through art 

We are thrilled to announce the premiere of the film we walk in our sleep by artist Noor Abed (1988, Palestine), at the Biennale Matter of Art in Prague, on 12 June 2026.

The fourth edition of the Biennale Matter of Art, entitled Necessary Wishes, foregrounds art that is born out of necessity and shaped by a reflexive, embodied engagement with the conditions people inhabit every day. The biennale is cocurated by Jaroslava Tomanová, Jakub Gawkowski, and František Fekete.


we walk in our sleep is co-commissioned by the Biennale Matter Of Art and the Bredaphoto Festival;  co-produced by the Han Nefkens Foundation and supported by Mondriaan Funds. 

The film acts as a portal to a liminal space where the dead and the living converge, exchange thoughts, and wander within an often invisible realm. Structured around two women's monologues, whose words sometimes meet and sometimes drift apart, the film anchors language as a site of rupture and agency. The monologue becomes an act that uses words to smuggle meaning and insists on the necessity of articulating fracture and defiance.

The film embraces a new spatial imagination as a necessary counter-force to historical closure. It navigates the intersection of the sacred and the modern, allowing both to surface within the same temporal and spatial field, rooted in Palestine. The scenes capture everyday life, at times expanding into geometric constellations through a choreographic approach informed by sacred movement practices developed from the study of ancient cultures. These collective formations emerge as accumulations of time, linking the synchronicity of bodies to sites of mourning, centuries-old architecture, and the residual traces embedded in Palestine’s urban and social landscapes.

We’re also delighted to highlight that the exhibition will feature two works by Huda Takriti: On Another Note and Revisitation. In Three Acts (Act One).
Huda Takriti is the winner of the Han Nefkens Foundation - Museu Tàpies Video Art Production Grant 2025 in collaboration with NTU Centre for Contemporary Art, Singapore; WIELS Brussels; Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila; Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai and Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donnaregina (MADRE), Naples.

Noor Abed, we walk in our sleep, video still. Courtesy of the artist.

The three-month exhibition and program of events will take place from June 12 to September 13, 2026, at the National Gallery Prague – Trade Fair Palace, GAMPA – City Gallery Pardubice, and the Tusculum Prague art center, with several projects expanding the timeframe of the biennale beyond this period.

The public Opening Ceremony will take place on June 11 at 19:00 in the National Gallery Prague, and the Opening Weekend program will continue until Sunday, June 14, with performances, guided tours, and other events. All of the exhibition venues and events will be open to the public free of charge.