Art: Matters of Life and Death
2000; BMJ; Volume: 321; Issue: 7255 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0959-8138
Autores Tópico(s)Empathy and Medical Education
ResumoSeason of arts events at Battersea Arts Centre, London, 16 June-15 July 2000 A consultant in a famous teaching hospital once said to me: “Only 50% of my patients ever die.” But death is an inevitable part of life. As the Scottish historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881), observed: “Death means going over to the majority.” Almost all doctors will care for patients whose illness progresses and who ultimately die. Matters of Life and Death probed this last great taboo. The festival united an array of artists exploring death and all that surrounds it. There was something for everyone—performances for adults and children, exhibitions, the spoken word, discussions, music, family events, film, workshops, and sessions for schools. Two per cent of children are bereaved of a parent before the age of 18, and many more lose grandparents, friends, or siblings. Yet we often avoid talking with children about death. How High is Up?, a performance by the group Theatre Centre, was aimed at 5-7 year olds. In this comic fairy tale, Little Star tries to stop time in order to prevent the death of a friend who is old and ill. She consults a series of magicians, who perform tricks with horrible weather and offer to stop the rains of bitter experience and the winds of uncertainty. But the magicians can offer only things she does not want—an eerie echo of some medical consultations. Bravely and yet simply, the play draws on the connection between the magicians' questions—“How high is up?” and “How deep is down?”—and the cycle of life. The work is challenging, absorbing, and moving, with excellent performances from the small cast of four interspersed by African drumming. In the exhibition High Spirits students at a local school worked with artists Sam Wells, Emma Spencer, and Peter Glanville to create coffins, urns, shrines, and caskets based on the themes explored in the season's events. There were fascinating tributes to relatives, friends, and many different pets. There was an excellent and provocative performance by Corin Redgrave of Oscar Wilde's De Profundis, based on the letter that Wilde sent to his friend and lover Lord Alfred Douglas when he left Reading Gaol. Comedians explored sex and death, a cabaret presented “Famous and not-so-famous mortalities of people we've never actually met,” and a workshop taught us about “Funerals and how to make them more personal.” And there were late night ghost stories for those keen on death's more frightening aspects. Artists have meddled with death in every generation. Matters of Life and Death was an eclectic and captivating blend of work that challenged the way we think—and often do not think—about death and the cycle of life. Battersea Arts Centre is to be applauded for tackling death with such fun, information, sensitivity, and, sometimes, sadness.
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