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Three years after the full-scale invasion began, what forms of normality are possible in the shadow of the ongoing conflict, as we witness history repeating itself again? It highlights stories from different regions of the world and amplifies decolonial narratives long overshadowed by dominant power discourses.

The title is borrowed from Luba Jurgenson’s essay When we woke up. The Night of 24 February 2022: Invasion of Ukraine (Verdier, 2023): ‘Borders are nocturnal animals, they move while we sleep. We should always be vigilant.’ The exhibition focuses on the threat of invasion, the haunting spectres of past occupations, and the enduring systems of belief and language that carry resilience. The artists featured use imagination, poetry and ancestral wisdom as political tools, alongside more documentary approaches to navigate complex colonial histories, examine present realities, and envision possible futures.

The question of energy is approached through the power dynamics at play with natural resources – forces that shape policies and landscapes – where extractivism emerges as a recurring feature of colonial oppression. The ecological aftermath of exploitation and war is visible in works that document the toxic traces or scars left in the landscape that remain long after. Looking at the landscape transcends generations and evolves into a reflection on historical repetition and deep time. The exhibition also portrays energy as a spiritual drive, and turns to nature as a catalyst of resistance through pre-modern rituals and beliefs that also safeguard cultural identity.