Wellness – Participate, Tend and Befriend!
Group exhibition with Eleni Kamma’s Tarek, the (Wounded) Healer (2019) at Kristianstads Konsthall, Sweden
03/10/2020 – 23/05/2021
Our notably increased interest in health and personal well-being is a social phenomenon. In this precarious pandemic era, our efforts for collective health are of great importance. This exhibition presents wellness through the perspective of contemporary art. Together with twelve internationally practicing artists, Kristianstads konsthall investigates whether art can be a strategy and method for well-being.
For many of us, wellness is a coveted lifestyle related to happiness and harmony. At the same time, the pursuit of well-being has polarized our society. Wellness can be an engrossing lifestyle with committed followers, enthusiastically sharing a belief in the utopian power of well-being. At the same time, it is a multimillion dollar industry feeding on hope and despair, dubious promises and deep disappointment, at high individual cost.
The scope of wellness is growing at a furious pace, rapidly producing new concepts and trends – from forest baths and retreats to age-reducing treatments and special diets. Self-care, internal and external, has for many become a necessity for surviving a hectic everyday life. At the same time, having the motivation, time and money to take care of oneself signals success in today’s society. It can even indicate an individual’s attitude to climate change and politics. This can be expressed through personal choices such as veganism or reducing use of plastics, as well as advocating stronger public health measures, such as shortened working hours.
Participating artists: Ditte Ejlerskov (DK), Feminist Health Care Research Group – Inga Zimprich and Julia Bonn (DE), The Institute for New Feeling – Scott Andrew, Agnes Bolt and Nina Sarnelle (US), Jeppe Hein (DK), Eleni Kamma (GR), Anna Ting Möller (SE), Nuleinn – Rine Rodin (DK) and Magga Ploder (IS), Pilvi Takala (FI), Slim & Krystal – Sidse Carstens co-lab med Rose Eken and Nils Gröndahl (DK), Sophie Utikal (US), Amanda Vincelli (CA) and UnfitBits – Tega Brain and Suraya Mattu (US)