Bellona (After Samuel R. Delany)

By Ann Lislegaard

How might urban life affect mental health?

In Samuel R. Delany’s 1974 science fiction cult classic Dhalgren he created the fictional city of Bellona. It is a place where impossible events take place, described from the perspective of an unreliable narrator. Lislegaard’s 3D animation imagines Bellona as a brightly coloured room, where long shadows are cast over doors and windows which swing open and walls move by themselves.

The unstable city setting reflects the relationship between urban life and mental health which has long been a topic of interest in social sciences such as psychology and sociology but is also now being actively researched in medical science such as neurobiology and psychiatry.

At King’s College London, the Urban Brain Lab is investigating new ways for sociologists and neuroscientists to work together, in order to better understand connections between city living and the development of mental health problems.

About the contributor(s)

Ann Lislegaard

Ann Lislegaard lives and works in Copenhagen. Her solo exhibitions include Tel Aviv Museum (2015); Kyoto Art Center, Japan (2015); Raven Row, London (2009); Murray Guy, New York (2014); Museum of Contemporary Art, Detroit (2009); Astrup Fearnly Museum of Modern Art, Oslo (2007); National Gallery of Denmark (2007); Esbjerg Art Museum (2006); Moderna Museet Project, Stockholm (1999). Besides participating in numerous exhibitions in renowned museums and art institutions internationally, she has participated in the Venice Biennale (1999/2005); Sao Paolo Biennale (2006); Lyon Biennale (2013); Sydney Biennale (2014); Gwangju Biennale (2016) and most recently the October Salon Begrade (2018).

Image © Ann Lislegaard, Bellona (After Samuel R. Delany) 2005.