We went to see The Encampment after supper this evening, rows of old-fashioned tents erected in Major's Hill Park and illuminated from within at nightfall, this artistic installation imitating a camp set up around an archeological dig. Only in this case we (the public) are invited to dig for insights about the plight or triumphs of (Canadian) people with mental impairments and their collective history. There are seventy tents: the number stands for a significant score in Intelligence Quotient tests—if you score lower than that you are considered to be mentally "challenged" and if young, you are then channelled into special education; in the old days, you went into a special Home where children were quite often ill-treated, it seems.
Inside each tent is a "work of art": a creative collection of objects or some momento put there by a person with an intellectual disability or in some cases by someone who cares for him or her; the history of the individual concerned is written on a sheet of paper that's pinned to the door of each tent, a flashlight attached on a string so that you can read it in the dark.
The six of us who saw it together came away subdued and disturbed. Designed to force us imagine the lives of these people, if only for a few moments, The Encampment certainly didn't fail in its purpose.
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