Art goes one step too far

by Emma Bower

Om average seventy-five people are diagnosed with the condition everyday, it os thought to affect around 50 million people worldwide and The Arts Council have paid dancer, Rita Marcolo, almost £14,000 of taxpayer's money for a performance which publicly degrades the condition.

Epilepsy is not a condition to be taken lightly but that has not stopped The Arts Council from turning it into a form of entertainment, or should I say 'freak show'.

According to The Times, the 24 hour performance will take place on December 11 and the paying audience will watch Marcolo's attempts to provoke an epileptic seizure.

In addition to discarding her medication, Marcolo will use strobe lighting, brain stimulants such as tobacoo and alcohol, sleep and food deprivation and computer programmes to provoke a seizure.

Alarms will sound when Marcolo has a seizure and audience members will be encouraged to film the effects of these drastic measures on their mobile phones. Dancers will keep the viewers entertained while they wait.

After working in a pharmacy and seeing the despair and anxiety many patients feel when faced with the possibility of a day without their medication, I think it is truly despicable that someone would consider lmaking light of the condition in the name of art.

What if the stunt were to go wrong? Marcolo is risking her life for the performance, or maybe it was the financial benefit that drove her to agree to participate.

Shouldn't we be embracing the fact that developments in medication have enabled us to control such conditions and continue with normal life not playing with our health.

It's not even as though Marcolo has just decided to stop taking her medication, she is trying to induce a seizure and appears to be using every stimulant possible, and will then deliberately expect the NHS to pick up the pieces if things do go wrong.

Surely this cannot be considered art? We live in the 21st century not the Victorian era when freak shows were seen as a form of entertainment. What will be next, someone with irritable bowl syndrome expressing their condition on stage?

 

See also: Epileptic seizure to be performance art