“I was in Nepal, researching myths surrounding menstruation, when I stumbled upon an article in the Times of India about an instance of mass hysteria. It was a modern-day event, but one in a long chain of similar outbreaks stretching back to the Middle Ages. As I dug deeper, the same questions kept haunting me: Where does this come from? How does it spread? Why does it only affect young girls? And why are there still no answers?” In the dimly lit exhibition space at the BAL, Abril introduces her work with these words.
In the exhibition, notebooks suspended on the walls catalog dozens of documented episodes, while the space itself is divided into thematic islands that spotlight three key cases. Each sequence is designed to unravel the origins and mechanisms of these unsettling epidemics.
The first case takes us to Chalco, Mexico, where in 2007, 600 young women at a Catholic boarding school suddenly lost the use of their legs. The second unfolds in Cambodian garment factories, where between 2012 and 2014, hundreds of female workers mysteriously fainted. The third brings us to Le Roy, New York, where teenage girls reported developing involuntary tics. Rational explanations for these epidemics proved elusive, prompting employers, politicians, educators, and media figures to attribute them to manipulation, deceit, or even possession. “But I discovered a theory that changed my perspective,” says Abril. “In the 1970s, anthropologist Aihwa Ong described the phenomenon as ‘the unconscious beginnings of an idiom of protest against labor discipline and male control in the modern industrial situation.’”
A protolanguage of resistance
These outbreaks of so-called “hysteria” can be understood as a form of protest—a way of using the body to speak when other forms of expression are silenced. Moving through the exhibition, the details come into sharper focus. American high school girls face the brutality of social media as they attempt to voice their pain online. Mexican schoolgirls are stripped of individuality, reduced to numbers, with identical uniforms, hairstyles, and even silenced dialects. Cambodian factory workers toil so relentlessly that some give birth on the factory floor. “It’s also striking that many of these factories are built on sites destroyed by the Khmer Rouge,” Abril adds
Through a mix of archival imagery, metaphorical creations, detailed accounts, and oral testimonies from victims, Laia Abril constructs an exhibition that is as comprehensive as it is complex. Rejecting conventional documentary methods, she opts instead for what she calls “a critique of our way of documenting.” The result is an oneiric narrative, translating the anguish of these young women into the language of nightmares. These evocative creations are juxtaposed with the chilling words of their detractors, emblazoned in red on black-and-white photographs, a visual reminder of the oppressive forces at play.
Upstairs, videos deepen the exploration of this “protolanguage of resistance” that so fascinates Abril. Across 50 countries, women express themselves, protest, and fight for their rights, confronting the relentless violence of patriarchy. Scenes of mass hysteria are interwoven with these acts of defiance, creating a resonant dialogue. “You need to look at these bodies,” the artist concludes. “That’s what they all share: the need to react.”
« On Mass Hysteria » by Laia Abril is on view at the BAL until May 18, 2025.
