Self-healing Processes
video installation, wood, paper
2024
Zsuzsi Simon often deals with the female body, especially its social perception. To create her work Self-healing Processes, she sought out breast and cervical cancer survivors, who, in the course of in-depth interviews, told her stories about, among other things, the mundane, quotidian activities that helped them get through the most difficult moments of the disease and the treatments. The artist then joined the interview subject in carrying out these activities, and the process was documented on video. Simon’s participation is both an act of solidarity and respectful compassion, transforming everyday household chores around the home as well as sports into a healing rite for a community of women. Excerpts from almost twenty in-depth interviews are pasted on the backside of the panels that incorporate the videos and make up the installation, which, in addition to their shape reminiscent of female organs, also evoke the banners of the feminist movement, which has brought about important changes, for instance in the way breast cancer is regarded and treated.
