The hospital as an alternative cultural space: art interventions at the Infectious Diseases Clinical Hospital in Cluj-Napoca.
About the project
The hospital becomes an unconventional gallery. Între Spații puts forward a model of an alternative cultural space, turning the waiting areas and corridors of the Infectious Diseases Clinical Hospital into a living environment where visual art finds a role.
The project brings together two real needs: to reshape medical spaces through the presence of art, and to offer the artists we work with genuine settings in which to show their work.
Între Spații sets out to turn the waiting areas and corridors of the Infectious Diseases Clinical Hospital in Cluj-Napoca into a living cultural environment that improves the experience of patients, their families and the medical staff, by bringing in, systematically, visual art made by artists who face social barriers, disabilities or vulnerable situations.
Între Spații responds at once to two realities that receive too little attention in Romania’s cultural and social life.
On the one hand, medical settings are often visually neutral spaces that offer too little to reduce stress or to create moments of calm for people in vulnerable conditions.
On the other hand, artists who face social barriers, disabilities or vulnerable situations have no real way into exhibition spaces, and remain invisible in the formal cultural circuit.
What we do
- 5 art interventionsEach space in the hospital receives a visual identity of its own, built from our artists’ works.
- A living cultural environmentWe change the experience of patients, visitors and medical staff, bringing art straight into their daily routine.
- Self-representation and connectionWe give artists a direct way to express themselves and to be present in public space, beyond traditional galleries.
The interventions so far
Biophilia
Biophilia describes people’s innate tendency to seek a deep connection with nature and its forms.
In a medical setting, however, living nature is hard to bring in, for reasons of hygiene. Medical spaces often become rigid and uniform as a result, precisely where patients most need calm and familiarity.
Where real nature cannot enter, its visual representation offers the answer. The intervention in the Laboratory of Rehabilitation, Physical Medicine and Balneology brings in a purely visual nature, which aims to restore the link with the outside world without breaking the rules of hygiene.
Expresiv Intuitiv
The intervention brings a series of works that explore visual language in its simplest form.
Rooted in intuitive making, a process guided by instinct and by an immediate response to colour and shape, the series is built from direct gestures and spontaneous layers.
The works combine figurative elements, such as characters, familiar shapes, houses or motifs from nature, with free compositions of patches of colour and rhythm. Through their directness, they speak of sincerity, of well-being and of a natural wish to express oneself.
A cultural project co-funded by the Administrația Fondului Cultural Național (AFCN, the National Cultural Fund Administration).
The project does not necessarily represent the position of the Administrația Fondului Cultural Național. AFCN is not responsible for the content of the project or for the way in which its results may be used. These are entirely the responsibility of the beneficiary of the funding.
