Hospitals are with us in the most sensitive moments of our lives; we resort to them when we need care, help, or rescue. They are part of the basic infrastructure of every city, yet they lie at the margins of political, financial, and social interests. Although our lives depend on hospitals, their environments are often bleak and dilapidated. Like their patients, they too need attention and care.
And it is the hospital we want to invite you to — for a lecture by artist Lucia Tkáčová, who will create several art interventions specifically for the Faculty Hospital in Trenčín as part of the European Capital of Culture project.
Her first intervention takes the form of a series of custom printed bed sheets designed for one of the hospital wards. These sheets will not only be practical and functional, but also visually striking and neuroaesthetically soothing. For many patients, the hospital bed becomes their entire world, as they spend most of their time confined to it. The bedding will be designed with respect to insights from neuroaesthetics — a scientific field that explores how the human brain responds to visual and artistic stimuli, in other words, what happens within us when we encounter something beautiful, harmonious or visually pleasing. The sheets will serve a dual purpose: to brighten up and enhance the environment for patients, and to provide a positive distraction for caregivers and healthcare professionals from their exhausting daily routine.
During the meeting at the hospital, we will talk with the artist about the therapeutic potential of art, about how beauty can support healing, and how even small gestures can improve the hospital everydayness. You will discover how colors and shapes affect the human brain and immune system, and how artistic means can alleviate pain and bring relief to suffering bodies and minds.
Come with us to visit the hospital in Trenčín, grow more sensitive to the world of the ill, and become aware of your own fleeting yet so often taken-for-granted health.
Photo credit: Adam Šakový
