21.08.2024 | 19:00 Uhr
currently closed
From June to August, the undergoing shift towards digital healthcare will be explored through the performance series Smart Nursing. Liesel Burisch, Ania Nowak and Anna Witt offer an examination of caring practices with a particular focus on their implications in Austria.
Ania Nowak’s Obelix Nutrix
Performance for Smart Nursing
17.08.2024 16:00
18.08.2024 16:00
21.08.2024 19:00
Commissioned and produced by Salzburger Kunstverein co-financed by the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.
Ania Nowak’s performance Obelix Nutrix for Smart Nursing performance series weaves together the historic and the futuristic to probe the evolving role of the nurse in healthcare. Centering on Florence Nightingale, viewed not merely as a historical figure but as an archetype, the piece uses her legacy as a launching pad for deeper exploration of the ultra-contemporary question: How will we care for each other in the metaverse?
Florence Nightingale, often depicted as The Lady with the Lamp, is renowned for her foundational role in modern nursing and her revolutionary use of statistics in healthcare. She represents the epitome of compassionate care and meticulous attention to hygiene and patient welfare during the Crimean War.
Through her artistic lens, Nowak examines the nurse as both a figure of care and control, employing Jacques Derrida’s concept of the pharmakon, which serves as both remedy and poison. This duality reflects the paradoxical nature of nursing, where the act of caring can also morph into control, reflecting societal ambivalence towards the labor of care. Nurses often embody this contradiction, as they navigate their roles of providing comfort and enforcing medical regimes. Nowak’s narrative is further enriched by references to iconic representations of nurses in history and popular culture, such as Nurse Ratched from One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, who epitomizes the fine line between care and tyranny. These portrayals prompt reflection on how society values the labor of caring—whether it is esteemed for its dedication or viewed through a lens of suspicion and devaluation.
In Obelix Nutrix, Nightingale’s approach—grounded in hands-on, compassionate care and captured in her analog diaries—is contrasted with the digital vernacular of GPT-4.0. This juxtaposition highlights the tension between traditional nursing practices and cutting-edge developments in digital health technologies, such as applications designed to assist with end-of-life care and stress-monitoring smart socks, currently being advanced at Paracelsus University in Salzburg.
Nowak’s performance critically addresses the potential dilution of humaneness and empathy in nursing as digital tools become increasingly prevalent. Through spoken word, enhanced by a soundscape and strong costume, the performance invites the audience to contemplate the future of nursing. It speculates on how the essence of care might change as professions, including nursing, transition into digital realms, reflecting on the implications for public health systems.
Curated by Mirela Baciak.
Sound: Justyna Stasiowska
Costume: Grzegorz Matląg / Maldoror
Video production: treat.agency
Ania Nowak (Krakow, Poland) approaches vulnerability and desire as a means of rethinking what the body and language can and cannot do. Nowak develops formats such as live and video performance, installation and text. In her practice, Ania Nowak deals with bodies in their non-linear capacity to feel and think in order to overcome the difficulties of care and support in times of constant crisis.
Co-financed by
