Sophia Süßmilch: Sanatorium Süßmilch

Pandemic, wars, global warming, energy crisis, inflation, patriarchy, etc.—all of these issues are having a lasting impact on society, creating a constant feeling of being overwhelmed by daily life.

Austrian artist Sophia Süßmilch has responded in a very special way to this phenomenon of exhaustion with her project Sanatorium Süßmilch. After installing her own personal sanatorium in the exhibition gallery at the Francisco Carolinum Linz, she took up residence there for a month. Her daily routine followed a “therapy plan” she had drafted herself, including massages, sauna sessions, art therapy, and talks offered for museum visitors. For two hours a day, the sanatorium was open for visitors, who were able to participate in the artist’s life.

In advance of the residency, Süßmilch had already discussed a series of existential questions on the current state of the world with 25 different people from her private life along with some experts. The participants in these conversations attempted to come up with solutions together to the world’s most pressing problems. The artist’s goal was to derive nothing less than a universally valid world formula from these answers.

After 30 days, Süßmilch moved out of the museum again, and now the ultimate world formula with solutions for humanity’s problems awaits visitors in the form of a huge mind map. This endeavor is of course doomed to fail, but the very pomposity of the effort functions as a satire of the supposedly simple solutions that policymakers sometimes extol as promises of salvation.

A catalogue is being published to accompany the exhibition. Curator: Gabriele Spindler