When we are sick, we are vulnerable. Increasingly assailed by medicine, we maintain a fearful and passive attitude towards our health and therapy, an attitude of hopeful expectation which often has an uncertain outcome.
The Sotiria Project, Memory and disease in visual arts discourse took place on the grounds of the Athens General Hospital for Lung Diseases in Greece in 2010. The site is historically charged, having initially served in 1903 as a public sanatorium for patients suffering from tuberculosis, and subsequently as a site of isolation, imprisonment and execution during the German occupation and ensuing civil war.
A large sphere, 3 meters in diameter stands in the woods. It is composed of eight lightweight flexible blades or meridians. It has one point of contact to the ground. The trees are seen through and around it. A rope joining the two poles of the sphere runs through the woods to a swing which stands at a10 meters distance from it. A piston and pulley mechanism activates the swing. The patient/spectator begins to swing, facing the sphere. This movement causes the contraction and expansion of the sphere, whose pulse expands proportionally to trajectory of the swing in the air. This activity virtually "elevates" the patient, causing euphoria and oxygenation. By visually experiencing what is happening inside his/her body as he/she inhales and exhales. The subject takes active part in her/his own therapy. Man and sphere breathe together in the forest. http://www.marioninglessi.com/thorax
When we are sick, we are vulnerable. Increasingly assailed by medicine, we maintain a fearful and passive attitude towards our health and therapy, an attitude of hopeful expectation which often has an uncertain outcome.
The Sotiria Project, Memory and disease in visual arts discourse took place on the grounds of the Athens General Hospital for Lung Diseases in Greece in 2010. The site is historically charged, having initially served in 1903 as a public sanatorium for patients suffering from tuberculosis, and subsequently as a site of isolation, imprisonment and execution during the German occupation and ensuing civil war.
A large sphere, 3 meters in diameter stands in the woods. It is composed of eight lightweight flexible blades or meridians. It has one point of contact to the ground. The trees are seen through and around it. A rope joining the two poles of the sphere runs through the woods to a swing which stands at a10 meters distance from it. A piston and pulley mechanism activates the swing. The patient/spectator begins to swing, facing the sphere. This movement causes the contraction and expansion of the sphere, whose pulse expands proportionally to trajectory of the swing in the air. This activity virtually "elevates" the patient, causing euphoria and oxygenation. By visually experiencing what is happening inside his/her body as he/she inhales and exhales. The subject takes active part in her/his own therapy. Man and sphere breathe together in the forest. http://www.marioninglessi.com/thorax