The hospital lobby becomes a large artistic workshop

The multidisciplinary artist and visual poet Alexia Briones has been installed in the lobby of the Sant Joan de Déu Sant Boi Children's Hospital to develop, together with four women treated at the Breast Cancer Unit, a large-format work of art.

With this initiative, which arose in collaboration with Torrents d'Art, the Arts in Health program of the Sant Joan de Déu Health Park, the artist and the center adhere to the task of disseminating information about cancer, one of the main causes of mortality in Catalonia and around the world.

Colour Path is a collaborative project that was born from the artist's concern to make art a tool that accompanies the healing process. And it starts from a premise as simple as it is profound: painting together as an act of life. The participants have created fragments of color using natural materials—seawater, mineral pigments, earths and enamels—which the artist will later transform into a large mural collage.

Cristina Meca, one of the participants, He highlights that “it has been very comforting to surround myself with people who are like me, who tell me that this will pass and that I should not suffer. No matter how much the medical teams explain it to you, when someone who has experienced the same thing tells you, you feel very supported."

For his part, Maria Porcel, the first woman operated on in the new Breast Cancer Unit, explains: “I have felt joy, sadness, anger, hope… I have felt very liberated. My work symbolizes that I must keep fighting no matter what. Now I have my first annual check-up and I am very eager to continue moving forward. It has been a great experience for me."

Briones it is clear: “I wanted people with cancer to be able to leave a mark. When a work emerges from many hands, it becomes a community act, a space where everyone feels represented and cared for. Creating together adds a very powerful emotional component.”

The collaborative piece created by the four patients and the artist will be permanently installed in the hospital on Friday, December 12, as a symbol of community, beauty and shared healing.

The new Breast Cancer Unit at SJD Sant Boi Hospital

Launched at the beginning of the year, it has allowed—in collaboration with the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO)—to offer a multidisciplinary and completely individualized approach to each patient.

“The Breast Cancer Unit has treated nearly 140 women, 68 of whom have had surgery here, while the rest have continued treatment at the ICO. This experience has allowed us to bring together four women who have gone through the same process and who have been able to share this moment together”, she explains Sara Molina, oncology nurse manager at the Sant Joan de Déu Health Park.

Torrents d'Art, the Park's Arts in Health program

Torrents of Art is the proposal of the Sant Joan de Déu Health Park to enable a framework for dialogue between art, health and community. Our commitment to the well-being of patients and users has led, over time, to introduce the world of art, from the most practical side and from the viewer's point of view, as a way of promoting health.

Currently, from the program ofArts in HealthAt Torrents d'Art we have around fifty artistic and cultural workshops running and a total of 16 services that offer cultural outings, on a regular basis, to their users.

It is proven that theArts in HealthThey are effective in therapeutic intervention and also when it is necessary to prevent and promote the health of the population.