Invited Art in Public Places competition, 2022 (proposal)
Helmholtz Pioneer Campus, Munich

Stainless steel, painted aluminum, acrylic glass, LEDs

Presentation: Patrick Oswald

The design addresses global inequality with respect to healthcare and the resulting contrast in life expectancy.

“Around a million people have no access to appropriate, affordable healthcare. This above all affects poor and disadvantaged population groups. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the World Bank, around 100 million people a year fall below the poverty line because they are broken by costs for essential medical treatment.”
(Source: BMZ/Bundesministerium für wirtschaftliche Zusammenarbeit und Entwicklung [trans.: BMZ/ Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development])

“The inequalities not only run along geographic lines, but are also based on sociopolitical factors. In Germany as well, poor people die many years sooner than wealthy people. Access to specialist doctors is easier in some districts of Nairobi than in Germany – providing one can pay for the treatment. The COVID pandemic has further exacerbated global inequalities.”
(Source: medico international, „Globale Gesundheit”, 2021 [trans.: “Global Health”, 2021])

The sculpture presents the theme of a lifespan, initially as a celebratory and optimistic promise that boldly aspires upwards. However, a look on the underside reveals a narrow LED band of lettering with information on highly contrasting life expectancies and their causes.

The data are updated annually and drawn from sources such as the WHO, the UN, medico international, People’s Health Movement, etc. The LED band only presents pure data material, without any comments or evaluating text.

Example data material (presented here only as very short extracts from lists of countries – the actual work includes more countries):

— Number of physicians per 1000 inhabitants: Sierra Leone 0.3 / Sweden 5.4 (source: WHO)
— Corona vaccine doses administered per 100 inhabitants: Singapore 238.1 / Yemen 2.7 (source: Our World in Data, University of Oxford)
— Average life expectancy by country: Slovenia 80.3 years / Nigeria 51.9 years (period 2010 - 2015, source: World Population Prospects of the United Nations)

The LED band is permanently illuminated as a yellow surface. At long intervals, parts of the LED slowly dim, making the lettering visible, before renewed illumination makes the dark parts disappear again on the yellow surface. This occurs to the inhaling and exhaling rhythm of breathing, which has been greatly slowed down. Once a data entry has been displayed in this way, there is a lengthy pause before the next data set becomes visible.