Snoring in the U.S.A. is a poetic and ironic work, subtle in its critical approach. It is a visual essay exploring clichés from America, a multi-channel "road movie" shot from the passenger seat, showing some of the most important and globally well-known locations from the film history, i.e. from wild westerns and road movies (The Grand Canyon, Monument Valley, the Las Vegas strip, etc.), but also small towns, fast food restaurants, gas stations, drive in cemeteries, etc. However, the beautiful images of fascinating landscapes  prevail (7 video-channels, 7 days), and they are alternated, juxtaposed with static black and white images of a couple sleeping and snoring in different hotel rooms (7 nights, 7 video-channels).

 

Filmed in 2003, this experimental documentary, also makes notes on an important historical moment, the invasion of Iraq and the war against terrorism, through documenting bits and pieces of radio-news while driving through the magnificent landscapes (the news mainly reports on the activities of President G.W. Bush), or tv-programs while zapping in the hotel rooms (an interview with Noam Chomsky on socialism, reports on anti-war demonstrations).

 

There are several possibilities on how to adapt the work for different spacial situations, as the installation can be presented with video projections or monitors. Optionally, the installation is expanded with a reading room. In any case, the multiplying sound of snoring (7 different sound tracks with snoring) dominates the exhibition space. It adds an ironical distance to the day-time recordings: the images of landscapes and everyday life in the USA. On the other hand, these moving images have a hypnotic character in their constant change, in their continuity and driving by monotony. What strikes the audience here is the feeling that there is actually nothing to see, that everything he/she is seeing, she/he has already seen before, and that, despite all that, it is still interesting and inviting. Then, one starts asking him/herself: Why is it so?