Bloody Test
The project aim is to explore relationship between health and work. It will be based on two-level examination of the biggest possible number of artists, gallery owners and curators. The examination will be both practical – complete blood count including blood sugar, cholesterol and ESR – and theoretical – two standard questionnaires: about health and satisfaction with one’s work.
What inspired us to realise Bloody test project was information concerning an examination which was carried out in Czech Republic. In 1999 Jiři Surůvka found in Soros centre in Prague a survey prepared by the Ministry of Culture. It was directed at freelance artists and contained about 30 health-related questions about the state of their memory, illnesses they had suffered from, their own opinion about their health, mental illnesses and stress level. According to Jiři Surůvka the results were tragic. It occurred that all the artists who took part in the survey had actually one foot in the grave.
In Poland there was never carried out any examination among people who deal with art professionally, who are representatives of a line of business which developed rapidly after 1989. And one has to admit it is a specific kind of profession. It is difficult to divide it into public and private sphere. This job takes 24 hours a day, regardless of whether one works for a public or private institution, or whether one is a freelancer. Occupational health care is still a new branch of study, which means that working conditions are sometimes far from the prescribed norms. There are not many who can easily define their profession. Why? Because due to insufficient funding of Polish culture they have to earn some extra money ‘on the side’. Others extend the range of their activities to become known. Or maybe this impossibility to define oneself in exact terms is a result of increasing process of blurring the lines between the branches between which we function? Curators’ work is more and more like artistic activity; artists are often curators of their own exhibitions. In our project we do not judge the behaviour and working strategies of given people or artists/gallery owners/curators in general. We are interested in the question how the state of health of the members of Polish art world can be viewed in this context. What is interesting is the state of relations between artists, gallery owners and curators. The conditions in which they work. The results among the members of one branch of this profession.
Complete blood count is a routine diagnostic test requested by a doctor who wants to estimate patient’s health. Such a test provides only basic information about the patient’s condition. In our project we use this basic examination on purpose. It provides data which enable to assess one’s health, it makes one reflect on one’s physical condition, but at the same time it does not violate one’s privacy connected with the intimacy of one’s body. The questionnaires used in the project contain standard survey questions encountered by many workers of other professions.
Representatives of these three branches (artists, gallery owners, curators) will be divided according to their age, sex and type of work. Blood count results will be interpreted by a physician. The questionnaires will be analysed by No Local Foundation. We would like to emphasize that the survey is anonymous and that we are interested in general results of this experiment. Both of the questionnaires are simple in form but they contain many valuable questions. Their range is very broad because due to the lack of any previous research we are not able to state which health problems are ‘typical’ for our profession or whether there are any problems appearing most commonly in our work. All information is valuable. This project is an experiment even for us, curators, and it does not follow any previously assumed thesis.
The realisation of the project depends on the discipline of the respondents so we would like to ask you to confirm the invitation within a week and to send the results within two weeks. The cost of complete blood count including blood sugar, cholesterol and ESR is about 15 to 20 PLN. If you need this money to be repaid, please send us such a request together with the results of the blood count and with questionnaires.
Send them to:
Patrycja Musiał
ul. Mazowiecka 125/53
30-023 Kraków
The project will be shown in 2008 in several institutions and galleries in Poland. It will be followed by a publication containing test results and texts expanding the topic, i.a. sociological analysis of relations between work and health, the idea of body as machine, ethical view on the boundaries of privacy and intimacy.
We intend to broaden the scope of the ‘Bloody test’ project. We would like to invite countries of the former Eastern Block to organize similar research the results of which could later be compared. As a result there would be created a broad data base containing information on the specific character of life and work of people who deal professionally with culture in the countries which have similar political and economic experiences.