SURVIVAL 20
24–28.06.2022
SURVIVAL 20. Art Review | PILLS
The pill as a symbol of choice and change of an individual’s relationship to the surrounding reality goes back at least a century. The alternative between the red and the blue pill in The Matrix – between living in the unbearable truth or remaining under the delusion of the system – dates back to 1999, although jumping into the rabbit hole has a much longer history. The very choice between truth and simulation is questionable in aworld where the existence of objective truth is doubtful and fictions structure reality.
The fact that the red pill chosen by Neo, associated with oestrogen administered to people in transition, has become an emblem of people fighting for men’s rights on the Internet, is in itself an excellent example of the instability of meanings. In the Internet jargon, to be “pilled” may be a shorthand for a general political awakening – as is the case with the red pill – and taking further steps towards extremist views (most often alt-right, but not only). The ideology encapsulated in pharmacological symbolism suggests a corporeal relation, in which partaking in a given worldview means embodying it.
Taking psychoactive substances is both increasingly common and systematically growing, which is sometimes regarded as a symptom and effect of socio-political, technological and systemic changes. The history of legalising and criminalising individual psychoactive substances is an important testimony to cultural, social and political transformations. The forms and purposes of using them – from escapism to pharmacological violence to healing rituals – indicate complex and unapparent relationships between consciousness and the surrounding reality. On the one hand, there is growing consumption and popularity of non-medical consciousness-altering substances, such as alcohol and drugs, which are most often used for recreational purposes. On the other hand, increasing numbers of people are being prescribed psychotropic drugs to bring them closer to what is considered normal and enable them to participate in social life.
Recognition of the mental health crisis as not only a social issue, but also a political one, is connected with the rejection of the logic of “privatisation of stress” (M. Fisher), which assumes individual responsibility for mental problems. From this perspective, depression, anxiety or panic attacks are attributed to the individual and result from their experiences, mental construction and neurology – not from contemporary labour systems, technologies and other features of capitalism, such as work precarisation, self-surveillance and constant monitoring, the compulsion towards constant productivity and availability and internalised competitiveness.
These considerations follow the hauntological perspective of capitalist realism, in which we can only look back because we are unable to envision a positive future, an alternative that would go beyond the logic of capitalism with its ultimately destructive principles of constant growth and social inequality. Some of the concepts developed in recent years that search for new models of social organisation and distribution of resources are resources relate to drugs and counter-cultures.
In response to “psychedelic socialism” (J. Gilbert) and “acid communism” (M. Fisher), McKenzie Wark in her recent analyses of rave proposed the concept of “ketamine femmunism.” Opposing the ideological connection between ownership and masculinity, but also the mistakes of feminism, femmunism is the communal love of all femmes, of all whose agency is to open themselves to the otherness of the world. (…) A love that is lateral, a sorority of those who have nothing to lose but their chains, and nothing to give but their availability.
While the hippie movement is associated with psychedelics, punk, with inhaling glue, and electronic dance music was accompanied by ecstasy, Wark points out that contemporary rave culture is best characterised by ketamine, a dissociative anaesthetic. Paradoxically, today’s search for a space of radical possibilities and potential forms of community is associated with a substance whose action is based on limiting of the transmission of external stimuli to the brain. Dissociation, which leads to depersonalisation and a sense of unreality, turns out to be more than turning one’s back on reality – when both the self and the world disappear, they can no longer clash. Perhaps this outlines a new mode of relating; perhaps it is just another leap down the rabbit hole.
Built in 1852–1916, the complex of hospital buildings on Traugutta Street currently constitutes one of the most interesting examples of historical hospital architecture in Poland. It is almost complete – out of ten buildings originally constructed in various architectural styles, nine have survived to our times. It is also Wrocław’s only institution of that size that was established by women and run by them until 1945. In the mid-nineteenth century, Evangelical deaconesses purchased the tavern “Under the Austrian Emperor” with a view to opening an infirmary there. A chapel was built next to it, soon followed by more buildings. The largest one of them, already heralding the advent of Modernism, was erected in 1913–1916. The entire complex was called “Bethany.” At first, the hospital had 80 beds; this number would eventually reach over 200, making it one of the largest in Wrocław. Patients were admitted regardless of their religion and treated in the departments of internal diseases, surgery, laryngology and gynaecology. The complex also comprised wards for infectious and chronically ill patients. After 1945, the hospital was given the name of Tadeusz Marciniak, and one of its facilities was designated as a children’s ward.
The location of this complex in the Przedmieście Oławskie housing estate turned out to be hugely important for its development. Situated in the eastern part of the city, it is one of the most interesting districts in Wrocław in terms of the variety of architecture. It is named after the trade road leading to the town of Oława and further towards Krakow. Before 1808, when Przedmieście Oławskie officially became part of the city, it was a recreational area often visited by bishops of Wrocław, among others. The character of the district began to change in mid-19th century due to the proximity of the railway station and the city centre, which favoured the development of manufacturing facilities and, consequently, an influx of inhabitants. Large tenement houses were built along the old trade route, with warehouses and small manufacturing facilities in their yards. The area along Traugutta Street became a kind of the first industrial centre of Wrocław. At the same time, on the other side of the “Bethany” hospital there were green areas of the Rakowiec village, which was a kind of entertainment centre where travelling artists would set up their circus tents alongside lupanars. The flip side of this form of lifestyle was the drama of the girls employed in these nomadic institutions, often very young, who in many cases were also sex workers. At the end of the 19th century, Wrocław had the highest number of sex workers in Germany, and many of them worked in Przedmieście Oławskie. A very important and completely unknown fact in the history of this neighbourhood was the opening of Wrocław’s first club for non-heteronormative people (who then called themselves “friends”) around 1920, soon followed by a second one in the vicinity of the “Bethany” hospital. After 1945, having survived the siege of Wrocław, Przedmieście Oławskie was quickly populated by newcomers and began to face the same problems as any district consisting mostly of tenement houses. During these post-war years, many legends arose around the area, which in the 1980s resulted in nicknaming it “the Bermuda Triangle.” Although this name is still commonly used, today it usually triggers associations with an interesting part of the city with many architectural monuments, community activation centres and pro-social initiatives.
17.12.2021–27.02.2022
PILLS
former Bethanien hospital
Generała Romualda Traugutta 118, 50-422 Wrocław
We invite you to submit proposals of art projects for the 20th edition of SURVIVAL Art Review, which will take place from 24 to 28 June 2022 in the former Bethanien hospital. “PILLS” is the slogan to which the proposed applications should refer.
When submitting a proposal, we ask you to take into account the character of the available spaces; we also consider displaying art projects outside of the building.
The deadline for submitting proposals expires on 27 February 2022. Proposals can be sent by completing the form and the attachments. The SURVIVAL curators will then choose artworks to be presented in the chosen venue.
questions: konkurs@survival.art.pl.
SURVIVAL 20. Art Review
PIGUŁY / PILLS
24-28.06.2022
former Bethanien hospital
Generała Romualda Traugutta 118, 50-422 Wrocław
Curators: Michał Bieniek, Anna Kołodziejczyk, Małgorzata Miśniakiewicz, Ewa Pluta, Daniel Brożek
Organiser: Art Transparent Foundation /www.arttransparent.org/en
Survival Art Review id co-financed by the Municipality of Wrocław / www.wroclaw.pl
Partner: OKRE / www.okre.pl
