Anna Odell’s acclaimed and praised work Rekonstruktion – Psyket (Reconstruction – The Psychiatric Ward) (2024) addresses common human, ethical issues and moral dilemmas of our time. In the video work, Odell shares her own experiences as a patient and at the same time creates a sense of recognition for many who themselves, or through their relatives, have had contact with psychiatry. During the 1990s, Anna Odell was cared for in a closed psychiatric ward where a she began a relationship with a caregiver, and they had a child together.
Rekonstruktion – Psyket was created during the autumn 2023 when Anna Odell was artist-in-residence at the Centre for Medical Humanities at Uppsala University. Since the beginning of May 2025, the work has been installed at the Uppsala Biomedical Centre, BMC, at Uppsala University and can be viewed during BMC’s opening hours.
Anna Odell became known to the public with the work Unknown, Woman 2009–349701 (2009), which was her graduation work from Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design. Even then she had her own life and her own experiences of psychiatric care as a starting point. This was followed by the acclaimed and award-winning feature films The Reunion and X & Y. All works have examined Swedish psychiatric care.
Artist biography Anna Odell
Anna Odell is an artist and film director born in 1973. She is educated in Stockholm at Konstfack University of Arts, Crafts and Design and the Royal Institute of Art. Power structures and group dynamics are recurring themes in her art.