Patients, 1987. (1-11/11)
In 1986 Zbigniew Libera started working as an activities therapist in psychiatric ward in Pabianice's hospital. During his classes he conducted, among others, painting and drawing lessons, and the hospital studio served as a meeting and creating place for other artists from his circle (Barbara Konopka, Jerzy Truszkowski). At this workshop they created huge format pictures used sometimes as elements of decoration for gigs of Sternhoch – the band where Zbigniew Libera played.
Thanks to his employment at a psychiatric ward Libera could make his work Patients. Cycle of photographs documents hospital life and registers the atmosphere of therapeutic classes with the artist. In the cycle pictures from group classes of the patients, and their individual, analytical portraits intertwine. Those pictures are the most impressive – the camera stresses psychological special traits of patients, and the artist becomes a therapist, who, via use of his camera, analyses disorders hidden in their psyche.
