Work / 006

En estado de coma

2005-2007  /  5 photographic series, video, sculptural installation  /  Hospital San Juan de Dios, Bogota

CULTURES

En estado de coma — Cultures, vegetation invading the hospital En estado de coma — Cultures, nature reclaiming spaces En estado de coma — Cultures, organic growth in abandonment

SOFT TISSUE SERIES

En estado de coma — Soft Tissue, hospital sheets En estado de coma — Soft Tissue, curtains and textiles En estado de coma — Soft Tissue, vestiges of medical activity En estado de coma — Soft Tissue, fabrics on empty beds

EXTRACTIONS SERIES

En estado de coma — Extractions, isolated architectural element En estado de coma — Extractions, specimen of the sick body

NOCTURNAL WALKS

En estado de coma — Nocturnal Walks, hospital corridor En estado de coma — Nocturnal Walks, room in shadow En estado de coma — Nocturnal Walks, palpable absence En estado de coma — Nocturnal Walks, nocturnal record

POSTCARDS

En estado de coma — Postcards, inverted tourist view of the hospital En estado de coma — Postcards, deteriorating facade En estado de coma — Postcards, evidence of abandonment En estado de coma — Postcards, postal record of the hospital

A set of photographic, sculptural, and video series about the Hospital San Juan de Dios in Bogota, which was, at the scientific and social level, one of the most important public hospitals in the country. Traditionally, it was the hospital that provided care to the lowest-income sectors of the city. The San Juan de Dios was closed in 2001 as a consequence of a combination of mismanagement and health service privatization policies.

"En estado de coma" began as a documentary project seeking to give visibility to the state of a deserted and fully equipped hospital. Little by little, it shifted toward other practices, and a series of interventions on the hospital furniture were carried out. The project is centered on the space of the bed, the only "private" space accessible to a patient in a public hospital.

"En estado de coma" seeks to approach some of the processes that converge in that space: the immobility in which an enormous and optimal physical plant and equipment are immersed, permanently threatened by deterioration (Postcard Project and video); the absent body of patients who have ceased to inhabit the Hospital during these years but whose traces we still find ("Soft Tissue" Series and "Nocturnal Walks" Series); the progressive process of usurpation of the Hospital's assets by government authorities ("Extractions" Series); and the resistance of a small group of its former employees who, with precarious means, insist on counteracting the institutional abandonment ("Cultures" Series and video).

TEXT ON THE BACK OF THE POSTCARDS

Hospital San Juan de Dios
2800 days at a standstill
540 hospital beds installed ● Basements: Emergency service with hospitalization capacity for 80 patients, 500,000 medical records in the active archive, passive archive with more than 2,000,000 medical records, central kitchen with capacity to serve 1,200 meals a day, central laundry with capacity to wash 1,200 sheets and 2,000 pieces of linen daily ● Floor 1: outpatient services, 50 consulting rooms ● Floor 2: Gastroscopy department, Pathology unit, Gastroenterology laboratory, Central clinical laboratory, National serum bank, Blood bank, Hemodynamics, CT scanning, Ultrasound, Nuclear medicine, Radiology, Tuberculosis unit, Pneumology department, Central sterilization ● Floor 3: 16 operating rooms, Intensive Care Unit with capacity for 21 patients ● Floor 5: Hospitalization for surgical specialties, men and women ● Floor 6: General surgery, men and women ● Floor 7: Internal Medicine, Renal and hemodialysis unit with capacity for 11 patients in 4 shifts, Nephrology laboratory, Electroencephalography ● Floor 8: All specialties ● Peripheral buildings: San Lucas Pavilion: Infectious patients, burn patients, Rehabilitation service ● San Eduardo Pavilion: Maxillofacial surgery, Plastic surgery, 30 dental units ● Maximiliano Rueda Mental Health Unit: Hospitalization for 40 patients, occupational therapies, day hospital ● Institute of Immunology ● Magnetic resonance imaging equipment ● Carrión: Eye bank, Bone densitometry, Endocrinology unit, Clinical hematology laboratory, Morgue ● Santa Marta Unit for tropical diseases ● Human team: 1,580 employees on standby
June 3, 2009