Where art helps heal

Editor Gabriella Alvarez-Hummel

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Hidden in the backyard of the Children's Hospital Zurich is a light installation by world-famous artist James Turrell. A visit.

From the outside, the light room looks inconspicuous. A container of some kind. Maybe four meters high. White. Susanne König, part-time employed at the Children's Hospital as project manager for art, unlocks the door. We enter. A completely white room. An elliptical light shines between two strongly rounded corners. It hardly noticeably changes colors. Susanne König points to the bench in front of the light. We sit down. "And now, when you look into the light, the room disappears at some point."

But not only the room disappears. The person looking at the light also somehow disappears.

And as calming and inspiring and peaceful as a stay in this light room is. It is not meant for the public. (Except once a month; more on that below.) The room is a place of retreat that is, to some extent, the complete opposite of the hustle and bustle of everyday hospital life. An invitation to step into silence for a moment. For the hospital staff. For parents and relatives of the patients. And for the children and young people themselves. Hence the name of the artwork: My Light. A light, just for me, even if for a very little while.

James Turrell, a genius between art and science, is one of the most famous artists of our time. How is it that an artist like him has realized this light room for the Children's Hospital in Zurich? It took two leading physicians who are interested in art and who know about the effect of art on body and psyche. They convinced Turrell of this project. It was a new path that the Children's Hospital was taking. One that understands medicine holistically. Where art has a supportive effect on the work that is done every day in the Children's Hospital.

However, My Light is just the beginning, "a foretaste," as Susanne König calls it. In 2024, the Children's Hospital will move into its new building in Zurich-Lengg. Art is to play an important role in it: James Turrell is designing one of his famous Sky Spaces for the new building, two stories and eleven meters high, an opening in the roof through which one can see the sky directly. The space will be constructed so that a hospital bed can be wheeled into it.

The light is violet-blue as we exit the light room. It feels like we have landed back on Earth after visiting an alien planet.

My Light is open to the public for three hours on the first Sunday of every month during the darker months, from September to December and January to April 2022/23.

Translated with DeepL