Apolonija Šušteršič / Light Therapy

At the darkest time of the year, one of Bildmuseet’s exhibition halls is transformed into a light therapy room. Here, visitors can receive free treatment from fifteen minutes up to three hours. The room where hosts welcome visitors is completely white, and has been equipped with special lighting and specially designed benches.

Šušteršič is interested in the encounter between people and different kinds of spaces, and in a place’s physical, psychological, social and political contexts. With Light Therapy, she has focused on Nordic winter darkness and its psychological effects. Light therapy treatment has become an increasingly common form of therapy for conditions such as seasonal affective disorder.

The work is also a commentary on the activities carried out by museums. Šušteršič sees programme activities, cafés and museum shops as important complements to exhibitions. What is required of the museum environment and its architecture so that visitors can enjoy the art on display in the best way?

Apolonija Šušteršič (born 1965 in Ljubljana, Slovenia) lives and works in Haarlem, the Netherlands. After completing her undergraduate studies at the University of Ljubljana’s Faculty of Architecture, she spent two years at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam.

Light Therapy was first installed in early spring 1999 at Moderna Museet, and is part of the museum’s collections.