Why nobody has the complete picture
- andreageipel
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
o you also get a headache when you have a migraine? Do you also vomit? Does magnesium help you?
These and other questions are frequently asked of people with migraines. The underlying assumption is: if you've experienced one migraine, you've experienced them all. However, migraine is a condition with many faces. Even people who have lived with the condition for decades repeatedly experience new symptoms, new triggers, or treatments that suddenly become effective or ineffective.
Did you know, for example, that migraine can occur without any headache? That some sufferers experience numbness in their arms or legs? That others primarily feel dizzy? That migraine in children often manifest as stomach aches rather than headaches?
My migraine is not your migraine. In fact, over time, not even my migraine is truly my migraine. So how can my art present a comprehensive picture of migraine? The participatory artwork "Lautstücke" ("Sound Pieces") emerged during my exhibition as an answer to this question.
Many voices instead of one answer
Several weeks before the exhibition, I invited people with migraine via Instagram to describe their condition.
Not medical – but with colors, shapes, pictures, individual words or short poems.
I wasn't interested in how migraine is explained, but in how they feel .
The response deeply moved me. Very different descriptions emerged – sometimes poetic, sometimes raw, sometimes surprisingly concrete.
During the exhibition, these submissions gradually became individual puzzle pieces. Every day, another piece was created directly in the exhibition space. Some visitors brought new texts, others observed the creation process, or returned later to see how the puzzle had grown.
In this way, the exhibition itself became part of the artwork.
Not a puzzle that can be solved.
In the end, the installation consisted of 22 large-format puzzle pieces. They deliberately do not form a closed image. Some interlock, others overlap, and still others remain separate.
The longer I worked on this project, the clearer it became to me that this is precisely where its true message lies.
There is no complete picture of migraine…
...not for those affected.
...not for doctors.
...not for researchers.
...and not for society either.
Each person possesses only a single puzzle piece. Only when many experiences come together does a larger picture emerge. And even then, gaps remain.
So, a widespread disease full of gaps?
This finding seems almost contradictory.
Migraines affect around 18 million people in Germany alone. Worldwide, they are among the most common neurological diseases and one of the main causes of disability in daily life and work – especially for women.
And yet, many sufferers repeatedly experience their condition being underestimated or misunderstood. The invisibility of the illness plays a major role in this. But research, healthcare provision, and political decisions also show that migraine is often overlooked.
With the current discussion in Germany about making it mandatory for sick leave certificates to be issued by a doctor from the first day of illness, many people with chronic illnesses have a simple question:
Who actually thinks about those who are chronically ill?
The puzzle therefore tells not only of individual experiences. It also tells of the gaps that still remain.
Art as translation
I don't believe that art can replace medical research. But it can do something else:
It can make visible experiences for which there are often no clear words. It can bring people into conversation with one another. And it can show that behind every diagnosis is a person with their own unique story.
Perhaps that's why a complete picture of migraine might never emerge. But every single piece of the puzzle makes the gaps a little smaller.
In the portfolio , I present "Lautstücke" (sound pieces) in more detail.
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