Art and Illness
At the latest with the Coronavirus pandemic, which has thrown the world out of joint, one thing has been clear: the topic of human health cannot be confined to the sickbed. The fear of affliction, disease, and death—a constant factor in human existence since time immemorial—has larger societal dimensions. A pandemic unites us in panic, shakes our faith in science, and has an impact on forms of collective life and our understanding of democratic norms. Triggered suddenly are dormant memories of ancient disasters such as plague and cholera, but also more recent crises like HIV and depression. This documentary illuminates the topic of sickness throughout the history of culture and the arts. The spectrum extends from an acceptance of fate, to faith in the reality of divine retribution, to confidence in medical progress, and all the way to artistic depictions of intimate and personal experience. Virtually no other theme is as emotionally and simultaneously socio-politically charged as the sick individual. How have our perspectives of illness, along with its artistic interpretation, changed evolved throughout the course of social history? How powerful are the results when artists take up their own physical infirmities as thematic material? When physical torment and spiritual suffering summon creative powers—and these in turn become strategies for survival? To what extent do widespread contagions fissure society, and how are such upheavals processed by creative artists? The documentary bridges the distance between art history and the here and now.
