Idle Language
(2026)

Solo exhibition at Center for Kunst og Mental Sundhed.

Idle Language centres on the three-channel animated video installation I don’t understand the words you use, exploring experiences of linguistic and institutional alienation within the psychiatry and the healthcare system. The exhibition focuses on the relationship between the individual, bureaucracy, and standardized treatment pathways.

The video draws on the logic and aesthetics of platform video games as a metaphor for navigating healthcare. Like a game character moving through a linear world governed by fixed rules and obstacles, the protagonist is confined to predetermined routes, reflecting the limited agency often experienced when seeking care within rigid institutional systems.

The exhibition title, Idle Language, refers to the concept of "idle" in video games, where a character remains present within a system but is suspended in a state of waiting or passive progression. At the same time, it points to the institutional language of healthcare - a language that can feel detached from lived experience, reducing patients to passive participants within bureaucratic structures.

The video installation is expanded with the work Pat, a sculptural representation of the work’s blob-like/ Pac-Man-inspired protagonist, and the image series The air has a taste of saline water, which explores the labyrinthine logic of healthcare systems and the often impossible task of translating subjective experiences into the language of documentation, diagnosis, and bureaucracy.