Inaugurated in 2009, the Ergasia art gallery located inside the Cery psychiatric hospital, welcomes for the first time a talent as young as Eva Kant. And if Bernard Bosson (director of the Ergasia gallery) chose her, it is above all for the quality of her artistic work and her personality: “it is also a question of promoting creative expression as a recovery process for people with troubled and difficult existential journeys.

Finding a social role is often difficult in a normative society. The best reward for an artist is to see an interested look on his work. This is an opportunity to give or restore confidence, to enhance your own image and increase your autonomy.
But before we get there, that is a long way, often long and winding. That’s why we have to spot and identify these various artistic talents.”

In 2014, Prof. Fabienne Picard, neurologist of Eva Kant, presented at a conference in Geneva titled “Art and epilepsy” (L’art et l’épilepsie), where she spoke about the different hypotheses based on scientific research. She reminded us that Socrates, Lord Byron, Flaubert, Dostoevsky, Van Gogh to name a few, were all epileptic.

A year later, Eva Kant exhibited for the first time at the art space of the La Lignière clinic where she met an unexpected audience and witnessed the emotions her work triggered people to feel. 

Her mastery of colors and composition is obvious; there is an immanent dimension in Eva Kant’s artistic work, probably exacerbated by her neurological condition, diagnosed at the age of 7. To cope with this diagnosis, it took the persistence of a mother, guided by her intuition.

And rather than letting isolation take hold, she offered Eva Kant pencils, acrylic paint and paper, in order to alleviate the struggles that her daughter encounters when dealing with others. Facing the white canvas, Eva Kant delves into her element and shares intimate insights into her personal life with us. Words become superfluous.

This exhibition highlights the artist and allows us to discover her personality through her art. If Eva Kant’s talent is obvious, this exhibition highlights Art as a form of universal expression.

Copyrights: Kleio Obergfell photography
Yu Ran Kim WE COUTURIERES