Doll operation, 2025

Video projected onto a vintage crib
orignal video 13:00 min

Lise Bøgh “doll operation” is a exploration of memory, neglect, and healing. The video shows a doll, once cherished by a girl, now abandoned beneath her bed as the girl grows up.

The central action of the video is an operation performed on the doll. The surgical act becomes a metaphor for emotional repair and the possibility of reclaiming innocence. The doll’s heart, once corrupted by time, is restored, but yet never the same as it once was.

Bøghs work examines the intersection of abandonment and restoration, questioning whether what is lost to time can ever truly be healed. Through the doll’s transformation, the video contemplates the complexities of growing up and the scars we carry both material and emotional and whether they can ever be truly undone.