Mimmo Palladino’s “Sleepers” at Palazzo Citterio, in Milan, evoked powerful narratives. The fragmented terracotta figures were awkwardly vulnerable in their fetal postures. Some were partly covered by fragments of clay vessels, while others recalled damaged water supply pipes, relics from an ancient city. All were immersed in a silent stillness, disconnected from each other. I wondered… Is this us? Disengaged and numbed by the collective challenges we face? Is this installation a glimpse into the societies of our future? Are we sleeping in apathy, surrendered to helplessness, or desperately seeking stillness to heal from the relentless hyperactivity our action-oriented societies impose? Is it exhaustion that broke us, or the absence of a ‘thinking life’, a “vita contemplative”, that would nourish the vision of ourselves as active agents and creators of our futures? A ‘thinking life’ is what defines humans. “The times are urgent; let us slow down”, Bayo Akomolafe reminds us. Can we afford to be sleepers?