Discussion “The Splendors and Miseries of Illness”: Anna Mazanik, Javi Karel, Valeria Kononchuk

International discussion “The Splendors and Miseries of Illness” is included in the discussion cycle "Salon of Rejected Categories" of the educational program of the VII Moscow International Biennale for Young Art. The curator of the cycle Andrey Shental.
The educational program was developed with The Winzavod Fund For The Support of Contemporary Art. Russian version see: link
Andrey Shental about discussion:
Illness and morbidity unveil a paradox of the letter and life experience, poverty and wealth, visible and invisible. In the final meeting from the cycle of discussions "Salon of Rejected Categories", philosopher Havi Carel, medical historian Anna Mazanik and cultural researcher Lera Kononchuk will discuss a topic that has unexpectedly become the central theme of 2020.
Despite the strict statistical classification of illnesses, an individual anamnesis can be radically different from systematics. As philosophers believe, medical practice produces several versions of bodies: both the patient's real body and the protocol diagnosis itself. And the physiological description often comes into conflict with the patient's subjective phenomenological experience.
Since all people, regardless of their status, are susceptible to illness, we are used to seeing it as a great equalizer. Being ill reduces a person to his "bare life" or biology - the immune system, genetic predisposition, etc. However, in reality, access to quality health care and drugs, as well as access to certain lifestyles, reduces both the risk of illness and increases the chances of rapid recovery. Historically, illness was perceived in the mass consciousness as the fate of the poor or as a curse for the rich; some illnesses received a public response, others - bypassed.
Finally, illness can be viewed as a manifestation of the philosophical difference between the virtual and the actual. Some diseases have a vivid visual manifestation and therefore became an object of art, falling under the category of "uncanny", "traumatic" and "abject". Others, on the contrary, are asymptomatic or undetectable and require different ways of representation.