La Box – Galerie d’art contemporain, ENSA
February 6 – March 22, 2026
La Box – Galerie d’art contemporain
9 Rue Edouard Branly, 18000 Bourges, France
Hours: Wednesday to Sunday, 2pm – 6pm
Opening reception February 5th, 6 pm
Round table discussion on ‘contemporary art and wellbeing’ February 5, 3.30pm – 5.30pm, with Anna Ihle (NO), Marion Dutoit (FR), Goro Tronsmo (NO), Julia Volonts (USA) and the participation of Clémence Vaillant, Director of the Centre-Val de Loire Health and Culture Network
Moderated by curator Maija Rudovska (LV)
https://ensa-bourges.fr/la-box/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/labox_ensa_bourges/?hl=en
Buskerud Kunstsenter is part of an international collaboration between artist Anna Ihle, curator Maija Rudovska and La Box art space in France.
La Box present a solo show Therapeutic Coverage by Norwegian artist Anna Ihle. The artist explores norms and narratives that shape how people in Scandinavia organise their lives, particularly through work ideals, wellness routines, and parenthood – often in the form of sculpture and conversation. Therapeutic Coverage takes as a departure point a conceptual exploration of wellness culture, therapeutic practices and traditional treatments for wooden surfaces. The project has developed over a longer time span through a collaboration between Ihle and Latvian curator Maija Rudovska, who both, affected by Covid-19, were conversing about con-spirituality and artistic practice, which gradually shaped the project.
“Con-spirituality” refers to a blend of political disillusionment, New Age spirituality, and magical thinking. These belief systems revolve around hidden truths and secret knowledge, creating fertile ground for charlatans, self-healing coaches, and social-media wellness gurus.
By constructing an environment that echoes objects found in therapy rooms, Ihle explores the artistic process as a potential site for treatment. Traditional surface-treatment techniques from Northern Europe intersect with a therapeutic realm, where hidden relational structures can surface. Ihle asks whether artistic work can offer a space for spiritual healing while still risking the misleading conclusions associated with conspiracy thinking. The installation evokes a therapist’s practice where structures and elements are subtly altered, suggesting a process of deconstruction and reinterpretation shaped by the patient’s own agency.
The exhibition is created in collaboration with Buskerud Kunstsenter (NO) and Studija Space (LV). It is supported by La Box, Office for Contemporary Art Norway (OCA), Arts Council Norway.
Curator: Maija Rudovska
Biographies
Anna Ihle (NO) holds an MA degree from Konstfack (Stockholm, Sweden, 2014) and attended Jan Van Eyck Academie (Maastricht, The Netherlands, 2018-2019) and textile design studies at the National Institute of Design (Ahmedabad, India, 2010). Exhibitions include Tied Up at Fotogalleriet (NO) To Break Up With Forms at Nitja (NO), I Call It Art at The National Museum (NO); Fruiting bodies, subterranean minds at Art Lab Gnesta (SE); What We Share. A model for cohousing in Nordic Countries Pavilion, 17th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia (IT); and Precarious: On the Aesthetics and Ethics of New Labour at The Museum of Work (SE) and, in collaboration with Addoley Dzegede, The Real Show at CAC Brétigny (FR).
Maija Rudovska (LV) is an independent curator, art critic, educator and writer. She holds an MA in art history from the Art Academy of Latvia, Riga (2009) and has completed postgraduate studies in curating from Curatorlab in the Konstfack University College of Arts, Crafts and Design, Stockholm (2010). Over the past fifteen years Rudovska has curated projects in collaboration with various arts organizations across Europe and overseas, such as: MO museum (LT), the Manifesta biennial (for the 13th edition in Marseille), PARSE NOLA (USA), the Foundation Ricard (both FR), Komplot, the Bozar Centre for Fine Arts (both BE), Futura (CZ), the Moderna Museet (SE), the Kim? Contemporary Art Centre (LV), Rupert, the Contemporary Art Centre Vilnius (both LT), the KUMU Art Museum (EE), the Living Art Museum (IS), HIAP (FI) and others. Currently she is running an art space “Studija” in Kuldīga and is a PhD student in Estonian Academy of Arts.
