Niki Danai Chania Will Not Let the Lamia Close Her Eyes

De Renava's Nimu Dormi Presents Niki Danai Chania's Lamiae in Bonifacio

De Renava presents Niki Danai Chania's Lamiae as part of Nimu Dormi, the third edition of the Biennale of Bonifacio, at the Agora in Bonifacio, curated by Prisca Meslier, through November 5, 2026.

Niki Danai Chania presents Lamiae at the Agora, one of five heritage sites activated for Nimu Dormi, the third edition of the Biennale of Bonifacio, in Bonifacio, curated by Prisca Meslier, on view through November 5, 2026.

De Renava translates Nimu Dormi as No one sleeps and frames the biennale around collective action, ritual and forms of occupation that emerge from people who remain awake. Chania's own statement likewise places vigilance, sleeplessness and collective agency at the centre of Lamiae.

The Agora is a former nightclub, closed for three decades until the biennale opened it to the public again this year. Chania's central sculpture is a symmetrical wall relief in concrete, aluminum and steel mesh, its horned, mirrored form named after Lamia, drawing on a version of the Greek myth in which she is condemned to eternal wakefulness after being deprived of the ability to close her eyes.

Two sculptural forms extend the same vocabulary on the floor and outside the room, and sound is by Marcel Dune with projection visuals by Ella Wanendeya. Across the installation, the artist lists aluminum, concrete, paper fibres, steel mesh and wood board as materials. Below, the artist explains why. 

Lamiae is a multimedia installation that considers the night as a space of collective agency and political potential. Drawing from the ancient Greek myth of Lamia, a figure cursed into monstrosity and eternal wakefulness after gods deprived her of the ability to close her eyes, the work repositions her not as a victim, but as an agent who reclaims control over how and when to see.

Lamia is not alone. Together with her kin, other Chthonic creatures, 'cursed' like her, she reclaims sleeplessness as a form of vigilance, a way of seeing differently and resisting imposed norms.

Spoken from the perspective of the Lamiae as a collective, the narration connects the mythological figure to contemporary nocturnal communities, bodies and identities outside normative structures, where the mythical curse becomes an allegory for marginality and resistance and nocturnal rituals become sites of gathering and alternative social organisation.

Curse and monstrosity are understood as imposed categories that can be turned into forms of agency, where sleeplessness is not exhaustion or affliction but heightened awareness that opens space for refusal, reorientation, and the rehearsal of other worlds within and beyond myth.

The original story Lamiae, which the installation is based on, is available on request.

MarcelDune I call it a gift now II

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Sound Piece: Marcel Dune (@marceldune) Projection Visuals Design: Ella Wanendeya (@ella.wanendeya) Materials: Aluminum, Concrete, Paper Fibres, Steel Mesh, Wood Board Photos courtesy of the artist