Bart Lunenburg at Museum Catharijneconvent (outdoor)
The Healer
10 September until 30 October, 2022
The presentation The Healer by artist Bart Lunenburg takes place in the Pandhof of Museum Catharijneconvent (Utrecht, NL). The museum’s monastery garden is the starting point for this series of works. Lunenburg delves into the local context of the Catharijnegasthuis, the former medieval hospital that was located in what we now know as the Museum Catharijneconvent.
The Healer is a series of photographic works and sculptures that explore principles of air purification, ventilation and quarantine as preventative measures against the plague. The work draws on numerous stories and examples from history in which a dubious role was assigned to air as a source of contamination.
According to the theory of Miasma, breathing in ‘sick’ air would cause one to become sick themselves. To guard against infection, plague doctors wore their familiar beak-shaped masks against the stench that hung almost permanently in medieval villages and towns. Herbs such as juniper, bay leaf, sage and thyme were burned. The smoke and fragrance emanating from these herbs was believed to help dispel the pathogenic air.
Various stories and anecdotes form the starting point for this series of new works, of which the Catharijne House has also become a part. In this series of photographic works and sculptures, the oak truss constructions of medieval dwelling houses provide the guiding principle for an abstract narrative of preventative measures. The work invites the viewer to think freely about hope and healing, decay and destruction and tries to get a grip on something as invisible as disease.
Museum Catharijneconvent: Pandhof (binnenplaats)
Lange Nieuwstraat 38, 3512 PH Utrecht
Tuesday – Friday: 10 am – 5 pm
Saturday – Sunday: 11 am – 5 pm
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