Pedro Reyes Sanatorium 2021
I recently visited MAAT in Lisbon and took part in Sanatorium. I say took part because this art is part interactive theatre, part therapy, part performance. On arrival to the exhibition, you’re given a list of ‘therapies’ to choose from. A therapist brings you to the chosen therapy. For the first, we had to write down a secret, roll it up and put it in one of the glass bottles scattered around the room. Then we got to choose a secret from one of the other bottles to read. In the second, we drew the face of someone we had beef with on a balloon. Then we placed the balloon in the head of this weird hanging bean bag man and got to punch it. The lights in the room went from blue to red as you were punching. When you felt like you punched enough, you got to burst the balloon.
It was really cool and super interesting as a concept. It is a bit weird, doing such poignant stuff in an art gallery. It does really feel therapeutic even if you are constantly reminded by the staff that it’s not actual therapy. However, I’d say if you took it all seriously you’d get something out of it. I’m bad at taking things seriously at the best of times and I felt a bit awkward punching the bean bag man but I still have the secret I took from the bottle. And I kind of love the idea that a stranger has chosen mine.
I am trying to walk more. I really like walking, especially in big cities where you can go for what I call *urban hikes* and get a coffee and people watch. I’ve just got back from a walk and it was lashing rain for most of it which isn’t ideal but I listened to some very good pop music and did 15,000 steps so that’s nice. Aware that this is boring chat so here’s the real meat of the sandwich:
Congrats you’ve made it to the end! Todah Rabah.
Eleanor x