HOW TO CURE YOUR SWISS ILLNESS

(ACCORDING TO THE INTERNET)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

​How to cure your Swiss Illness ( according to the internet) by Maëlle Gross earns its title from the term given to nostalgia still considered a psychopathological disorder between the 17th and 19th century, associated with Swiss soldiers away at war. Through a series of videos that revolve around the artist following a set of internet-sourced instructions in the hope of curing her “swiss illness”, and on the whole verge on the nonsensical, Gross references her own sense of displacement in order to explore ideas of place, origin, identity and belonging. Constantly oscillating between fact and fiction, the verbal and the visual, and fusing different languages as well as text and image, the video installation also addresses notions of identity disorientation in the age of the internet. Inspired by internet memes, gifs, youtube videos, as well as home movies, the work is infused with a lo-fi, DIY aesthetic that counterbalances new technologies and the fast-paced, visually saturated popular culture of which it does, however, remain very much part of.

 

text by Irini Bachlitzanaki  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to cure my swiss illness (according to the internet) :

 

going to the street where my family used to lived

 

share your story/ memories with someone who cares

 

Not be too serious about your nostalgia sickness

 

looking at old pictures

 

find a daily routine

 

Listening to old sounds

 

accept your present situation and deal with it