‘Sickness Report’ by Barbora Kleinhamplová at Savvy Contemporary
In a new film and installation created specifically for SAVVY Contemporary, the Czech artist Barbora Kleinhamplová addresses the sickness of neoliberalism through a metaphorical voyage both far ashore and into the mechanisms of building luxurious yachts and the fabrication of medications. An anthropological report of a middle-class dream-turned-into-nightmare attempts to capture the findings of a dizzy exploration, inviting viewers to consider their potential nausea as a part of something bigger:
It’s not just them or us who are sick. The whole ship trembles in nausea and discomfort. Stillness can hardly be distinguished from vertigo and acceleration boosts motion sickness of both the crew and the very deck carrying the tortured bodies and minds. For those in pain, it doesn’t sound like a solution to just wait for the boat to fall apart and then start building a better one from scratch. It might take too much time. It might never even happen. Time might bring irreversible damages. The ocean might not be very accommodating. Still, they are the ones on board, while others are drowning. More and more prescriptions of diverse medications clearly aren’t capable of bringing structural change. The symptoms are reoccurring, copy-pasted, spread out on most of the ships sailing turbulent seas. Drowsiness, dizziness, discomfort, restiveness, repetitive yawning, malaise, nausea, pallor, sweating, headaches, fatigue, chest pains or tightness, palpitations, insomnia, apathy. Reducing symptoms has proven easier than searching for causes.
Everybody participates. Even the doctors are sick. The workers in the drug factories are sick. The differences are mostly economical. Few can afford mechanisms that will excerpt their watercraft from the widespread misery. Some can afford not to be well. Some can afford the doctors and pills. And yet, they don’t really get better. The majority is working for and paying for the ship not to fall apart. In the evening, they sit down and watch it speed up, recess, stagnate. They are taught to think that sickness is their personal problem and therefore has to be treated individually. They don’t know who or what else to blame it on.
Imprint
| Artist | Barbora Kleinhampá |
| Exhibition | Sickness Report |
| Place / venue | Savvy Contemporary |
| Dates | 30.11.–23.12.2018 |
| Curated by | Karina Kottova |
| Photos | Marvin Systermans |
| Website | savvy-contemporary.com/en/projects/2018/sickness-report/ |
| Index | Barbora Kleinhampá Karina Kottová Savvy Contemporary |