Laura Stoll works professionally as an anaesthesiologist. Her artwork series None of Your Art Will Have the Same Impact as 200mg of Propofol engages directly with narcotics such as ketamine and propofol: empty ampules cast into epoxy serve as relics of time spent unconsciously, the dosage calculated according to the artist’s own weight and age.

These works address the idea of “perfect sleep” and the human desire to be temporarily released from sensation, consciousness, or pain. Anaesthesia numbs, but artificial sleep is not restorative. Here, it functions both medically and metaphorically - as a necessary intervention and as a cultural impulse to numb oneself in the face of overwhelming reality.

Throughout history and across cultures, humans have sought ways to let go - through ritual, intoxication, trance, or sedation. Such practices exist on a spectrum between care and risk, healing and misuse. In the context of Active Rest, these works ask how much withdrawal is necessary for psychological survival, and when rest becomes avoidance. They complicate the idea of rest as purely restorative, suggesting that rest can also involve danger, dependency, and loss of control.

The program is part of the exhibition Active Rest: An Exploration of Time, 20 February – 4 April 2026.

Laura Stoll is an artist and anesthesiologist whose work spans sculpture, installation, and performance. She holds a medical degree from Charité Berlin and a Master’s in Art & Science from the University of Applied Arts Vienna. Stoll’s practice operates at the intersection of medicine, psychology, and philosophy, exploring epistemological and metaphysical questions through a variety of media. Her work investigates consciousness, perception, and the embodied experience of time, often using material and conceptual strategies drawn from both scientific and artistic methodologies.