KYOTOGRAPHIE and the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan invite you to a public discussion with Swiss author Arnaud Robert, ahead the final weekend of his Kyoto exhibition ‘Happy Pills’ made in collaboration with photographer Paolo Woods.
Performance, strength, intelligence, seduction, relaxation: Can we put happiness in a pill? Swiss author Arnaud Robert and Dutch-Canadian photographer Paolo Woods present Happy Pills, an exhibition, a book and a film that investigate the complex relationship between happiness, medicine and their representations until May 14 at Kyotographie.
Through powerful imagery and thought-provoking writing, ‘Happy Pills’ challenges perceptions around of how we handle medication in different societies. Robert and Woods travelled the world for five years in search of Happy Pills, those drugs that can repair an invisible wound, those substances that can make people take action, help them to work and work out, ease suffering or achieve excitement. The project confronts us with our own relation to medical drugs.The project is supported by the Embassy of Switzerland in Japan and its Vitality.Swiss program as well as the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands.
* Arnaud Robert will be joining online.
Speakers
Arnaud Robert (Journalist, filmmaker and author)
Arnaud Robert is a Swiss journalist, director and writer. His work has been published by Le Monde, Le Temps, La Repubblica, Les Inrockuptibles and many other international publications. He has directed five documentaries (including Bamako is a miracle, Bondyé Bon and Gangbé!). He is the author of several books including Hors-bord, co-authored with the painter Frederic Clot, STATE with Paolo Woods, and Journal d'un Blanc, a compilation of his columns in the Haitian newspaper Le Nouvelliste. He also wrote 50 Summers of Music about the Montreux Jazz Festival. Arnaud Robert has received the Jean-Dumur Journalism Prize, the Prix des Radios Francophones Publiques and, in 2020, the Swiss Press Award for his investigation on the toilet revolution (heidi.news). His most recent project, realized with photographer Paolo Woods, is an exploration of our relationship to drugs entitled Happy Pills: it includes a documentary film, a book and an exhibition.
