B-N-L

Drawing on her experiences while receiving a Fibromyalgia diagnosis, artist Lauryn Youden auto-theoretically examines the socio-cultural surroundings of receiving such a diagnosis. Varying theoretically informed reflections and stream-of-consciousness listings, her text explores one of Fibromyalgia’s claimed causes: childhood trauma. By misspelling words and using grammar and punctuation as flexible devices, Lauryn creates pauses between subjects or paces how one reads. This text originated as a contribution to the exhibition «When the Sick Rule the World» at Gr_und Berlin (2019).

Lauryn Youden

Lauryn Youden (b. 1989, Canada) is a performance and installation artist and poet based in Berlin, Germany. Her practice derives from her research in and navigation through the medical industrial complex / colonial medicine, «alternative» healing practices, and traditional medicine for the treatment of her chronic illnesses and disabilities. By publicly presenting her personal experiences and re-evaluations of history, her work illuminates and advocates for repressed, marginalized, and forgotten forms of radical care and Crip knowledge.

She has performed and exhibited internationally at numerous major institutions, including Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (NL), Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (CH), Shedhalle, Zürich (CH), 11th Berlin Biennale, Berlin (DE), Frye Art Museum, Seattle (US), Volksbühne, Berlin (DE), Manifesta 12, Palermo (IT), Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart (DE). This year, her work is included in exhibitions at Tabakalera, San Sebastian (ES), Laumeier Sculpture Park, St. Louis (USA), Museion Bolzano (IT), Musik Installationen Nürnberg (DE) Kinderhook & Caracas, Berlin (DE), The Fairest, Venice (IT), and Open Forum, Berlin (DE).