University Hospital in Ghent  -  'IO TOCCO IL CIELO CON UN DITO'

VONDELPARK-AMSTERDAM,  HYDE PARK-LONDON,  TIERGARTEN-BERLIN, JOSAPHTPARK-BRUSSEL,  BIOS DE BOULOGNE-PARIS,  GIARDINO EX PAPADOLI-VENEZIA, CENTRAL PARK-NEW YORK

Peter Schoutsen installed 7 light boxes in the ceiling of the hospital street that leads to the operating theater and the intensive care unit on the first floor in the new building of the UZ-Gent (K12C). The light boxes show foliage from parks in major cities seen from below.

"Assuming that a large number of patients experience their hospital stay from a sick bed, i.e. horizontally, the ceiling seemed to me to be the ideal surface to perform an intervention." said the artist. "Parks are the lungs of the city, the images of foliage are soothing and bring back memories."

"The corridor is long, passers-by are not surprised by the tapping. They are given plenty of time to interpret my behavior and to create a story. When they reach me, I no longer exist, they are only looking at the Olivetti. Moreover, it is my impression that in this place, which connects the ordinary world of cough syrups and adhesive plasters with the picu, the pediatric intensive care unit, people recognize each other more quickly. The hallway has a cold linearity that is only emphasized by two skinny ficus plants. The plants are far apart, lonely, it seems to me like a form of abuse. Art hangs from the ceiling, glowing photos about one and a half meters square: seven times a canopy through which sunlight shines. There is a card on the wall next to each photo. Hyde Park. Vondelpark. Central Park."

 (from: Post Mortem by Peter Terrin)