Pillow Talk
Iolanda M. Matei
Antwerp, Belgium
About
Iolanda Matei (RO, 2002) is a graphic designer based in Antwerp, Belgium. She completed a BA in Graphic Design in 2025 and an MA in Visual Arts, within the Socio-Political Context, in 2026 at Sint Lucas School of Arts Antwerp. She works with digital tools when needed, but often starts with her hands. She believes graphic design should be tangible, something you can hold, fold, damage, carry around, or leave on a table. She likes words, texts, fonts, books, paper, printing, folding, scanning, touching, trying, and changing the layout one more time. She dislikes biographies, which is inconvenient. She likes emails more. Send her one!
Project
The bedroom is a remarkable space.
It is the most intimate setting we know, the place where we reveal our most vulnerable selves and where we daily surrender our consciousness to something beyond our control. But this space was not always quiet, not always private, and not always solely ours. For centuries, we slept together, skin to skin around the fire or with our entire family in one big bed. Sleep was a collective act, surrounded by rituals that guided the transition into the night and kept possible dangers at bay. Many of those rituals have been lost. The sleeper now lies alone. The prayer has been forgotten, the candle has been blown out. We no longer lie beneath a cross, but under blue light, and scroll until our eyes fall shut. Yet the need for protection has never disappeared. We all sleep, know fatigue, dreams, and waking, but no one can fully share that experience. We can lie beside someone under the same sheet, and still not be part of each other’s sleep. As soon as we are alone, our dreams can drag us someplace we did not ask to go. How do we prevent that? What do we place by the bed? What do we tell a child?
What remains when the lights go out?