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Snap out of it

2020 - 2023

video installation, 16 min 37 sec

スクリーンショット 2023-05-19 2.21_edited.jpg

 
戦前の水治療法(灌水籠)について書かれた文献に、”精神疾患は頭が沸騰しているのが原因だから水で頭を冷やせばいい”といった記述を見て、その言葉が強く印象に残った。 私はその言葉を起点に、ある精神疾患を抱えた友人と”まともについて”を話し合う。屋上の開放的な空間では、親密な対話が青春劇のように繰り広げられる。

精神疾患における水治療法は、現代では近代的な理論と設備をもって有効だと認められている治療法とされる。しかし、古い時代にさかのぼると世界中で似たような”水で頭を冷やせばいい”といった、原始的な想像力のもと行われていた記録を目にすることがある。このような古い”水治療法”のイメージは、”水責め”の拷問のように自白や思考を矯正されていく様子とも重なる。

正気か狂気か、それを証明しようと試みる不条理な対話劇の中で、「私はまともです」と叫び続ける。
(本作は現在行われている”水治療法”とは大きく異なる。)




There is a saying that "mental illness is caused by a boiling head, so cool your head with water.
Using the primitive and violent imaginative power of these words as a starting point, a mentally ill friend and I discuss "normality" (what it means to be normal). It is not a therapy, but a reincarnated form of dialogue. In the open space of the rooftop, the intimate dialogue unfolds like a coming-of-age drama.

The phrase, "Mental illness is caused by a boiling head, so cool the head with water," was used to describe the "hydrotherapy" of the prewar era. Hydrotherapy" for mental illness is now recognized as an effective treatment method with modern theories and facilities. However, history shows that it was practiced all over the world with such primitive imagination. This image of the old "hydrotherapy" also overlaps with the torturous process of "waterboarding," in which confessions and thoughts are corrected.

I found the term disconcerting, but at the sa
me time strangely persuasive. The image people have of mental illness seems to have an unconsciously violent imagination that is fundamentally based on discrimination and prejudice.

(This works is very different from the "hydrotherapy" currently practiced.)

 

 

 

 

1GB

12 - 13 Sep, 2020

Spiral Hall (SPIRAL 3F) | Tokyo, JPN

Organizer: Wacoal Art Center Co., Ltd.

Exhibition plan: SPIRAL

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