Courtesy of the artist
This year Berlin Art Week introduced Xchange, a programme focusing on alternative working approaches outside of the large commercial galleries openings and fairs that invade the city over the course of a week. “Stendhal Labor” was one of its projects, and it spanned over two sites known as Erratum and Vesselroom. One of Xchange’s main objectives was to create new formats of exhibiting which respond to contemporary society. And Carmen Loch’s work “Stendhal Labor” offered exactly that – a moment where art, chaos, hysteria and vehemence intersected.
Courtesy of the artist
Courtesy of the artist
In her one-day show, Loch wandered with ease around the recently converted gallery-cum-surgery in the heart of Kreuzberg. She was dressed in pale tones of greys and lilacs, a comforting cross between fashionable Scandinavian attire and typical lab wear. She stood amongst her assistants who glided over to the guests/patients with caring smiles upon their faces.
The initial ideas for “Stendhal Labor” came from Lochs time in Cité des Arts, Paris, a residency programme she attended, where she became obsessed by the psychosomatic disorder know as Stendhal Syndrome. This disorder causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, fainting, confusion, hallucinations and can even result in long term dependency of anti-depressants. It can affect an individual when they are exposed to an experience of great personal significance, or immense natural beauty or – when viewing art. Initially Loch had toyed with the idea of allowing herself to take on the characteristics of the syndrome and declare herself to be in a state of ecstasy throughout the Paris art scene. In the end, she decided instead to seek those afflicted with the condition.
Courtesy of the artist
Courtesy of the artist
Loch’s early works act as a kind of schooling for her methods in “Stendhal labor”. She has always been interested in medicine and psychology, for example, when she installed the “Respiration studio” in Paris or the “Sleeping laboratory” in Nuremberg, where her viewers/patients cited they had discovered ways of creating new worlds by using inter-subjective consciousness as a form of aesthetics. As Loch gathered methodology and procedures for her works she often contacted people working in the field of health and mental wellbeing, spending hours working alongside them and often swapping roles so they become her patients and vice-versa. Yet Loch was very direct in saying she didn’t wish to reproduce or re-perform classic doctor-patient relationships, which is why she took a more auto analytical approach exploring all methods first on her own body before sharing it with others.
Courtesy of the artist
Courtesy of the artist
In “Stendhal labor” one could encounter methods such as reanimating frequencies, olfactory stimuli, touch drawings, herbal elixirs and exercises in stress release. The “reanimating frequencies” was an interesting piece coined and produced by Loch comprising a sound file of healing frequencies that reduce negativity in your body which work alongside to natural oils such as lavender and silver fir that were administered during the therapy. And it indeed had a positive effect on your personal sanctum, and helped you find a place of inner peace. Loch didn’t just perform her remedies for an immediate reboot after the hustle and bustle of art berlin contemporary and too many free beers from the night before. Loch rightfully believes we are living in a world that is aesthetically overstimulated, and hence her show about personal concentration and de-acceleration came in at the right time.
Text by Penny Victoria Rafferty
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