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This is a dynamic artwork, switching from Day/Night mode at 8am/8pm.
Blissful Happy Fool
by Ryan Koopmans & Tjo
Nestled atop a forested hill in Tuscany lies an abandoned villa with a dark history.
The crackling of broken glass underfoot echoes through the pitch-black musky hallway as you journey deeper into the building's eerie depths.
As you shine your headlamp on the walls, disturbing drawings made by former patients come into view. The childlike sketches depict figures and animals armed with axes, guns, and saws. A poem, written in pencil, is scrawled alongside the drawings, dated and signed "3 o'clock, September 10, 1968." The final ominous line reads, “And you'll be a blissfully happy fool for the rest of your life, crazy.”
This is Villa Sbertoli, formerly a private mental health facility from the 1600s, a prison during World War II, and then a public psychiatric hospital throughout the early 20th century. Its reputation is marred by the institute’s approach to psychiatric treatment which often involved brutal restraints and experiments. This ultimately led to the hospital's closure and abandonment in the late 1970s.
The building, grand and steeped in history, is in a state of ruin and decay.
Its architectural significance combined with its complex psychiatric past makes it a prime subject for Koopmans and Tjo to unleash their creativity and create a one-of-a-kind collaboration.
‘Blissful Happy Fool’ blends elements of the imaginative and surreal with the tangible and real.
The artists have blended their personal styles into the textures and forms of the building by incorporating photographs taken both within the building in Italy itself and by Tjo from the other side of the world.
Ryan Koopmans and Alice Wexell, who have worked together for almost a decade, visited the building and captured its essence through photography. They enhanced the most impressive room with animated vegetation, light, and three-dimensional structure, imbuing it with their creative touch.
Tjo then integrated his signature blue and checkered textures into the walls, infusing them with his energized and dynamic hand. At the heart of the room is an original Tjo artwork that fills the empty painting frame, making it the centrepiece of the interior.
Coded by Transient Labs, the artwork transitions from day to night as the clock on the viewer's device hits 8 PM and 8 AM.
