As part of her research practice, our artistic collaborator Angela Alves, together with Prof. Dr. Monika Ankele, gave a lecture on the topics “Horizontal - Politics and Poetics from a Sickbed” and “Cripping Nervous SysteMS - How to dance with stressed cultures”. The lecture, as well as the subsequent discussion between Monika Ankele, Angela Alves, and Lukas Feireiss, is part of the series “The Healing Arts: Encounters in Art and Medicine” and took place on May 20, 2026, from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. in the Paul Ehrlich Lecture Hall at the Charité Medical Center Berlin. You can find a link to the recording of the talk here.

Among other things, the lecture focuses on Angela Alves’ research on prolonged baths, a medical treatment method that was used in psychiatric institutions until the mid-20th century. During so-called “prolonged bath therapy”, patients had to lie in water for days, weeks, and even months. As part of her research practice, Alves created the audio installation DAUERBADEN as part of the exhibition “On Water” at the Humboldt Labor.

Angela Alves is a Berlin-based choreographer, dancer, and cultural worker living with a chronic neurological condition. Her practice unfolds at the intersection of body, art, and politics, challenging dominant narratives of health and illness. Working from lived experience, she develops performances and installations that explore vulnerability, rest, and alternative modes of productivity within the arts. Her work foregrounds anti-ableist strategies, centering practices such as resting, pausing, and “cripping” as forms of resistance and care. Alves studied dance at ArtEZ (NL) and dance studies at the Free University of Berlin. Since 2023, she has been an artistic associate in the project team of Prof. Claire Cunningham at the Inter-University Centre for Dance Berlin (HZT), contributing to research and practice in inclusive and embodied performance.

Prof. Dr. Monika Ankele is Professor of the History of Medicine and Medical Museology at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and Director of the Berlin Museum of Medical History. A historian by training, her research focuses on the history of psychiatry, patient perspectives, and the material cultures of medicine. She is a founding board member of the International Association for Medical & Health Humanities and Artistic Research (IMHAR) and has co-directed its affiliated institute at the Hochschule für Künste im Sozialen in Ottersberg. Her work bridges historical inquiry with contemporary debates in the medical humanities. Recent publications include contributions to Art and the Critical Medical Humanities (Bloomsbury, 2026). In May 2026, she will open the exhibition Horizontal: Politics and Poetics from the Sickbed at the Berlin Museum of Medical History.

The Healing Arts is a series of discursive encounters exploring the intersections of art and medicine. Initiated and hosted by curator and educator Lukas Feireiss, the seriues is organized in collaboration with the iNternational Society of ARts and Medicine and teh Network Arts and Medicine at Charité Universitätsmedizin since 2023.