Video HD 28 min. 2020/2022.
Collaboration with Ole Christian Ellestad.
The film “Liv laga seg bevisløse tilstander” (Proofless States of Being) looks at how modern sciences relate to the role of the patient and follows the paths of scientific research ahead and astray, through the history of psychiatry.
The fulcrum of the film is an area called Gaustad in Oslo where Norway’s first psychiatric hospital (est. 1855) is located, as well as the University in Oslo and the new Life Sciences building which is under construction on the former fields of the psychiatric hospital.
We wished to speculate in future scientific research in light of Gaustad´s history – from geography and the ideology of architecture to medical history and individual destinies. A history that ranges from good intensions to human experiments in the name of progress.
The film is a collaboration between Ole Christin Ellestad and myself and includes both our voices and texts in addition to poetry written by a patient. The imagery ranges from our own filming, archival material, documentation of interventions/performances and conversations with doctors in psychiatry, a filmmaker and children in a local kindergarten.