Leo: Thanks for the invitation.
Eva: My pleasure. I know that you are very busy with your sketches.
Leo: No pressure. Food is important too.
Eva: (smile)
Leo: Time is always available for anyone who will use it.
Eva: Good food needs time.
Leo: And good company.
Eva: Do you have any food allergies?
Leo: No.
Eva: I am cooking veal with rice.
Leo: Sounds good. It goes perfectly with the Italian wine that I brought.
Eva: Lekker!
Leo: (puzzled)
Eva: I mean perfect.
Leo: Tell me about your project.
Eva: I am working on the theme of Burnout.
Leo: Burnout? It’s a new term I assume?
Eva: Well, yes.
Leo: Could you explain to me what exactly is burning?
Eva: From my research so far, the brain and the soul.
Leo: (silence)
Eva: I am not a scientist but…
Leo: Why, do you consider yourself as a non-scientist?
Eva: Well, I approach my art practice scientifically and I am reading a lot about neuroscience but I never formally studied science.
Leonardo: I didn’t study art. Am I not an artist?
Eva: No, I mean…Yes.
Leo: Tell me more about the Burnout.
Eva: Sure.
Leo: What did you explore so far from your research?
Eva: That the human brain perceives stress as a real constant threat.
Leo: mmm….
Eva: Neurologists claim that the amygdala…
Leo: Amygdala?
Eva: The amygdala is a section of the brain that is responsible for detecting fear and preparing for emergency events.
Leo: Go on (he is looking at me and I feel his fascination)
Eva: Amygdala scans the threats and our body produces hormones, andrenaline and cortizol in order to prepare us against the threat, even when there is not a real physical threat.
Leo: But the pain is real.
Eva: Yes.
Leo: The deeper the feeling, the greater the pain
Eva: Actually when someone is burned out, his brain is rewired into a survival mode, preparing him for a fight-or-flight response.
Leo: In order to survive. Make sense.
Eva: More salt?
Leo: No, thank you.
Eva: So in this project I offer food to the people.
Leo: Like now.
Eva: Yes. I also interviewd people who experienced burn out and I share their stories with the audience.
Leo: How does this work?
Eva: The actors embody their stories. I serve food, and then all together we have a discussion at the dinner table.
Leo: The mechanism of theatre, a machine for thoughts (his finger circles as a gear beside his head)
Eva: And I made all the decisions for this project subconsciously.
Leo: A force maybe. This unknown force that drives art.
Eva: And now, after my interaction and research about how the brain works…
Leo: Do you really have an answer to that?
Eva: Science is shedding more and more light on that.
Leo: This wine… magnifico!
Leo: Isn’t wine still the most sophisticated drink in this time?
Eva: There is no other drink that has so much depth, which can stimulate our senses like wine.
Leo: You know the magic of wine only appears to our senses if we manage to combine the purest ingredients of nature with the imagination of mankind. The art of wine is a choreography of knowledge, chemistry and craftmanship…
And grapes.
Even in modern times, profoundly new discoveries never come from a prepackaged box.
Stay wild Eva and brew the best of art, science and philosophy into something shocking and new!
Leonardo da Vinci (1452–1519) made far-reaching contributions to many areas of science, technology and art. Leonardo's pioneering research into the brain led him to discoveries in neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. Leonardo developed an original, mechanistic model of sensory physiology. He undertook his research with the broad goal of providing physical explanations of how the brain processes visual and other sensory input and integrates that information via the soul. (Pevsner 2002)