“Guillaume Bottazzi’s luminous works to replace antidepressants?
Head to a Beaux-Arts-style building listed as a Brussels heritage site, a stone’s throw from the Place Brugmann (98 rue Berkendael, Ixelles). It is in this building that, for three days, the public will be able to discover the latest permanent creations by Guillaume Bottazzi. The artist is well known. With his monumental frescoes scattered all over the world, he has established himself as one of the leading figures in public art. For more than 30 years the man has been collaborating with many renowned architects, sharing his colorful aesthetic on public walls – notably in museums and ministries – but also responding to large-scale private commissions. In 2023, forty of his environmental and permanent works of art, scattered across France, took part in the European Heritage Days.
The sensory power of a work of art
Even though we have known for a while that the arts enrich our lives, they can also play a major role in our mental health. In 2019, the World Health Organization made an official statement to this effect. The most common effect? Reducing stress considerably. For over a decade, Guillaume Bottazzi has been exploring the intimate links between neurology and art in our living spaces, with our well-being as his focus. He is the first to be convinced that certain works of art act like medicine, making us happier. A pioneer in neuro-aesthetics, the artist explains these exceptional benefits in terms of the mistakes we make in our environment, notably by using lights in our daily lives which are said not to allow the pupil eyes to rest, to damage our eyesight, and to produce anxiety and sleep disorders. Although it would certainly take more than one visit – perhaps even a lifetime – to really realize it, these luminous works of art are said to have the power to make us feel better: attentive contemplation is said to reduce our heart rate, stress and anxiety, and to help us put our thoughts in order. For Guillaume Bottazzi, who studies the subject and experiments with it on a daily basis, the benefits are not just conditional. The artist is convinced that his luminous works have got the power to soothe and strengthen us, to put us in a good mood by activating neurotransmitters, dopamine in particular, which send us rewards commonly known as happy hormones. They act against depression by producing serotonin, a substance that activates neurotransmitters found in antidepressants.