TRANSLATION OF THE FRENCH MAGAZINE ARTICLE – TOP SANTE – MAY 2019

COLORS ENTER THE HOSPITAL

Colors have an impact on our emotions, sometimes to the extent of calming the heart's rhythm, an asset soon to be utilized at the department of cardiac surgery at a hospital in Paris.

Projecting colors and lights on the walls of a room expecting to receive five or six persons to be immersed for a session of complete relaxation and hypnotic effect. This is what Robert Einbeck, who for more than thirty years has been studying the impact of color on wellbeing and health, has envisaged. This project of an artistic space of serenity was conceived of for patients and caregivers at the cardiac surgery department of the Cardiology Institute of Professor Pascal Leprince (the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris). To create the space of 50 square meters, the artist painted about a hundred large pieces that were photographed in order to turn them into videos of 10 to 20 minutes' length, linking serenity, tranquility, and beauty. "These videos represent a disk pierced by a central opening, shaped like the Bi disks created in China over 5000 years ago that symbolize the universe and play a protective role," Einbeck explains. "Offered in hues of green with shades of red (green's complementary color), the disks turn around themselves. They are accompanied by music composed and based on sounds from space of NASA and on that of Tibetan bowls." Sponsored by the Ministers of Health and of Culture, and under the aegis of the Association Adicare founded by Professor Christian Cabrol, this space of serenity will open in early 2020. It may also become available at other institutions.

What is the influence on the body?

As early as the 1980's, Robert Einbeck suggested to the Ambroise Paré Hospital (Boulogne-Billancourt) that they evaluate the wellbeing of hospitalized cardiac patients. For 15 minutes they were immersed in each primary color projected by light (green, red, blue), whereupon the rhythm of their heart, their tension level, and their psychological reactions were analyzed. "Soothing, because of its association with nature, with hope, and for Muslims with the color of God, green is the hue that mainly slows down the rhythm of the heart. Initially, red (fire, blood) strongly accelerates the heart that then slows down again after several minutes. Blue, which evokes the sky and the sea but hospitalization as well, increases the speed of the heart to the point of sometimes provoking extrasystoles, a problem of the rhythm of the heart that causes palpitations," Robert Einbeck states.

A SPECIALIST OPINION

Prof. Pascal LEPRINCE, heart surgeon at the Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris: "Our patients undergo serious surgeries with difficult post-operative recoveries. The Space of Serenity can contribute to decreasing both the stress and the quantity of painkilling drugs when they come out of the recovery room. It will be open to the families for whom this is sometimes a very difficult time, and to the care-providing personnel that needs to recharge its batteries as well. One can find places of worship in hospitals, but no rooms of serenity. It is an ecumenical art, one that connects and is soothing. I am very open to any artistic initiative that contributes to the wellbeing of the patients."