Turin Horse: Physicality of Wellbeing, 2020–2022.
Photographic research and installation.
Presented at CristelBallroomGallery, Amsterdam, 17-18 May, as part of ‘Chop Chop’.

Visit the page about Turin Horse, photographic research project (2020-2022).
Visit the page Turin Horse: Falling into the Void (2024-ongoing).
Visit the page Turin Horse: Hydrtherapy (2023).

– “How are you?”
– “Good!”

Mental health struggles, though widespread, remain hidden, unspoken, and deeply stigmatized. Our hyperindividualistic society, driven by notions of productivity, performance, and perfectionism, forces us to hide behind good appearances and make pretends – or to suffer in silent isolation. Turin Horse: Physicality of Wellbeing confronts these taboos through photography, here presented as an installation using a medical privacy screen. It explores society’s discomfort with mental illness and invites us to rethink how mental health is perceived and expressed, especially within work and interpersonal relationships.

The photos central to the installation are silent testimonies. Each shows a classic studio portrait with the same rigid three-quarter pose and neutral expression, giving no obvious sign that anything is wrong. Yet, beneath the surface, every image quietly records a moment of intense personal struggle – anxiety, loneliness, a panic attack frozen in time. Created in collaboration with a local professional passport and portrait photographer, Dijkhuizen places himself before the lens amid vulnerability and turmoil. Without the photographer’s full awareness of the project’s intent, each session becomes an experiment: can a routine working relationship hold space for fragility? Can it be reimagined as one of care, reflection, and mutual presence?

The work is presented as an installation featuring a medical privacy screen. Traditionally a symbol of privacy and concealment, here it is transformed: its semi-transparent fabric reveals rather than hides, exposing the blurred boundary between protection and exposure. This evokes an uneasy ambiguity – what are we willing to show, and what remains hidden in shame? The installation invites viewers to consider how vulnerability is managed, obscured, or performed in public and professional life. Just as the portraits challenge conventions of representation, the screen unsettles expectations of safety, privacy, and the “naked truth” behind appearances.*The title Turin Horse refers to Nietzsche’s 1889 breakdown upon witnessing a horse’s suffering, using the horse as a metaphor for the triggers and challenges we face in society. Since 2020, the ongoing project has explored the hidden narratives of wellbeing and anxiety, reflecting on the subtle forces that unsettle us and how we might learn to care for what frightens and shapes us into being.