a collaborative project with Abi Palmer

The disabled, queer poet Abi Palmer wrote large portions of her debut novel Sanatorium (2020) from her bathroom in a council flat in South London. Here, she welcomes the reader into the most intimate of spaces, discussing her experience with chronic illness, queerness and disability openly. We are taken on a journey between a series of spaces linked with her treatment, from a luxurious spa in Budapest, through an NHS ward in the outskirts of London, the home where she grew up, and to the bath where she is writing from. She lives with Ehler-Danlos Syndrome, a connective tissue disorder that makes her joints, skin and ligaments lose, and psoriatic arthritis, which cause autoimmune inflammation in her joints. Bathing makes her condition better; her muscles stronger and offers pain relief. Here, she reflects upon the way that stiffness and fluidity meet, the straight and the queer, pain and pleasure. As I meet Abi a few months after she launched her book with an online stream from her inflatable bathtub, I want to hear more. I want her to tell me about her bathroom.

On Being and Bathing is a collaborative project between myself and Palmer, where I engage with her work and writing through filmmaking. The collaboration was made possible with an i-Portunus Mobility Grant in 2019. The film has been screened at Barcelona Architecture Week 2021, Berlin Short Film Festival 2021, and the exhibition Chronic Conditions: Body and Building commissioned and organised by the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 12 October – 11 December 2021.

a project by Anna Ulrikke Andersen and Anne Silje Bø.

Since 1976 the Norwegian government has sent rheumatic patients to Montenegro for climatic treatment at Institute Dr Simo Milosevic, JSC Igalo. The programme, run by Oslo University Hospital, has since expanded to include other locations in Southern Europe, and research shows that the treatment is highly successful in increasing mobility, and reducing chronic pain and fatigue. In 2020, all treatment abroad is cancelled, and the patients must stay at home.

“Ubehandlet” explores everyday experiences of patients living with rheumatic illness during the Covid-19 pandemic, with a focus on how lockdown measures affect their treatment. Andersen and Bø will interview a series of patients of Skype, and the recorded interviews will form the basis of a podcast episode, articles, and in its full length, are securely stored in the archive of the Norwegian Folkemuseum website minner.no. We are interested in the way people feel about not being able to travel for treatment, how their bodies are affected and how being at home makes them think about the southern sites where they previously so successfully have received relief from their chronic conditions.

A sound piece was edited and published through ROM forlag, Oslo. Sound design by Therese Næss Diesen.

The project is supported by Kulturrådet [The Norwegian Arts Council]