Shared Inc. operated by xperiment!
true/false Inc, Vienna, 2006
In Cyprus, thalassaemia is a common hereditary disease, which used to cause many deaths. A prevention program was introduced requiring that, before marriage, every couple present a certificate to the priest attesting they had carried out a test for the thalassaemia gene.
This module asked if the state or the church have the right to intervene in our partner choice in order to prevent diseases. And it shows how scientific methods rearrange family relations. An installation of framed texts and photographs presented the Cypriot case and questions how different societies deal with hereditary diseases.
The story was told with ethnographic material, photos in clinics, photos of married couples from photo-stores, interview excerpts, a social history of Cyprus told with the help of stamps, all arranged in about 200 old picture frames. Ethnographic support by Stefan Beck, Humboldt University, Berlin.
