Nessun Dorma (None shall sleep tonight)

Joubert Park in front of the Johannesburg Art Gallery, Johannesburg, 2008

Two-hour performance with opera singers Rheinald Moagi and Khotso Tsekeletsa and four CSS Tactical Security Guards

Photographer: Chris Saunders

The performance was repeated and the prints exhibited at the Dray Walk Gallery in London in November 2008.

In recent years, the parks and avenues surrounding the Johannesburg Art Gallery in Joubert Park have become crowded taxi ranks and hawkers’ markets during the day and no-go areas at night. In the Nessun Dorma performance, I relocated my bed to the rose gardens in Joubert Park. Guarded by four CSS Tactical Security guards, and serenaded by two opera singers performing Puccini’s aria Nessun Dorma, I fall asleep in a familiar state of mind to South Africans – relaxed but forever on guard.