«Ensemble» – The Care Chronicles

Since 2020, visual artist aNa Fernandes has been developing a long-term collaborative artwork with first-year medical students at Lyon-Est Faculty of Medicine. Through a digital creative protocol designed by the artist and My Art Box, each new class is invited to answer the same question through drawing: “When you hear the word health, what comes to your mind?”

Every year, hundreds of individual drawings are created and assembled by the artist into a single collective mural. Together, these works reveal contemporary representations of care, human relationships and the medical profession.

Presented for the first time as a complete series, the artworks produced between 2020 and 2026 form a sensitive archive of collective imaginaries surrounding health. By bringing together successive generations of students around the same question, aNa Fernandes highlights how perceptions of care evolve over time and how an era can be reflected through those preparing to become healthcare professionals.

Echoing the theme of the 18th Lyon Biennale of Contemporary Art, “To Pass from One Dream to Another”, the exhibition invites visitors to move through these successive imaginaries and observe how collective visions of care are created, shared and transformed.

Large-format prints of the murals will be displayed in the main hall of Lyon-Est Faculty of Medicine, accompanied by interpretive panels presenting the artistic process and the history of the project.