Miriam Bajtala

An abandoned house with crumbling plaster and bars on the windows, vast empty rooms, and a white wall. In front of the wall, we see a single wooden chair and four actors. As part of an exercise used to educate doctors in training, each of the actors plays the role of a person suffering from a mental illness. The actors do not merely describe the people in question, but perform them as theatrical roles. While they speak, they also mirror the characters’ gestures and facial expressions. Yet a precise recreation is hindered by the subjective nature of perception. Do these recreations capture reality? In parallel to these interviews, a voiceover makes frequent interjections, sometimes talking over the actors. Alternating with the interview scenes, we see further scenes of actors acting out the behaviors described. This gives rise to a differentiated and non-judgmental perspective on illness. The actors come to see that there are understandings of reality which differ from their own. The perceptions and patterns of behavior which appear strange to the outsider are a reality for the patients. Even if we do not consider their perspective be ›normal‹ or ›real‹, for the person in question, the world they inhabit in is entirely plausible. It is always difficult to understand something so far removed from our own reality. Nonetheless, Bajtala attempts to approach various different world views in her work, views which many will find difficult to get to grips with, but which are nonetheless very real for others. (Alina Di Buó)