Since the last year our professorship has been part of an artistic research collaboration with Fontys Mens en Gezondheit, together with the historical college FNI of V&VN and the Pulse network. Called “Onderhuids” (“Subcutaneous”), this is a project where art, heritage, history, care and nursing work come together. This project comes together beautifully in an exhibition during the Dutch Design Week 2024, now in its last days (19-27 October). The former train platfom at designer Piet Hein Eek’s location forms a special “backdrop”where three artists explore the boundaries of nursing work in an inspiring way.
Nursing work as commodity
What do nurses actually do? And will there be enough “hands at the bedside” in the future? Is healthcare an endless commodity? Making sense of nursing work is in any case not as easy as being shipped by international delivery services.
In Onderhuids, artists and nurses collaborate to explore and push the boundaries of nursing work. The artists Nieke Koek, Aart Strootman, and Dana Dijkgraaf have created three works in partnership with nurses Inge Smits and Jessica Berkvens (Kempenhaeghe), Monique van Huijgevoort (Archipel Zorggroep), and Elise Bot (De Wever). The artists have explored the contexts in which the nurses work and translated their experiences into visual, auditory, sculptural, and playful work.
The three works are placed in and around an exact wooden replica of a sea container. The container represents the often invisible and continuous flow of care work that deserve more attention. No iron cargo containers, staged up high at the port of Rotterdam but an unique, wooden, custom made one. Visitors are encouraged to think about what nurses do, the impact of their often invisible work, and how this work contributes to the sustainability of healthcare system, now, and in the future.
Onderhuids is part of a research project carried out by Fontys School of Nursing and the Academy of the Arts, in collaboration with the Museum of Nursing FNI van V&VN and the PULSE Network: Medical and Health Humanities. Onderhuids challenges participants to experience and rethink and redefine the nursing profession.
Would you like to know more about the project, there are still two days left to come and visit us during the DDW, and/or take a look at the website of the Personal Orientation in an Aging Society Professorship.
Falk Hübner 