Goals of the Mad Balkans project visual art workshops:
- Social inclusion and improvement of the quality of life of users of psychiatric services through artistic creation, interaction, dialogue and joint artistic expression and production, in cooperation with professional artists and art professors (Ljiljana Sunjevaric, Rados Antonijevic, Milorad Mladenovic, Vladimir Milanovic, Zoran Dimovski, Bogdanka Cabak, Gordana Belic i Marija Kucan).
- Promotion of the practice of artistic expression in the context of mental health in the community from the Balkans in one of the EU countries and in the region.
The use of art in psychiatry dates from the mid-20th century when the first initiatives for the use of art as a tool for recovery and wellbeing took place (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_therapy). Recent studies (https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/cg178), as well as BAAT (British Association of Art therapists) guidelines, underline the achievements and results of artistic practice and art therapy on the improvement of overall wellbeing, life quality and recovery of people with mental health issues who are regularly engaged in these activities.
Apart from this individual psychological benefit, art offers psychiatric care users an important social benefit- a direct channel of communication with their surroundings and the society in general. Since people who struggle with mental health issues are usually deprived of their social needs, establishing contact with other people is often a challenge. Stigma, prejudice and misconceptions about mental health and especially people diagnosed with schizophrenia lead to fear and rejection. When faced with works of art created by psychiatric care users, people get the chance for another perspective, they get to know the authors and see them in a different light. This is why Art brut or Outsider art (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsider_art) became popular around the same time as art therapy and the use of art in psychiatry. This movement offered social inclusion of socially marginalized artists.
Artistic creation, as a non-verbal channel of communication, a creative „tool“ for self-knowledge and expression of feelings, sometimes represents a more adequate way for psychiatric care users to get to know themselves and open up to society. Taking into account the fact that the language used by psychiatry, as well as society when talking about people with mental health problems, is mostly stigmatizing, often expressing condemnation, fear, and rejection – to people living with a „diagnosis“, art offers a new kind of empowering communication with themselves, but also a significant opportunity to present themselves to the environment in a different light.
Visual art workshops will be carried out through direct communication between artists and users of psychiatric services and will consist of a series of meetings/ gatherings and dialogues between artists and psychiatric care users, in which creative ideas will be designed and carried out. In these activities, both individual and group work approaches will be used with the aim of developing creativity, self-confidence, life and social skills of the users of psychiatric services on one side, and on the other- creating the sense of belonging and facilitating reintegration into the community, through group work.
Through creative activities adapted to their needs, in a protected space, we will work on acceptance, self-confidence, interpersonal and life skills and empower them to take an active role in recovery.
The very fact that there is an interest in the artistic creativity of the users or the topic of mental health, the willingness of the public to participate in the discussion on this topic and meet the users, find out what problems they face on a daily basis, means a lot to the users, affects their self-confidence and gives them hope for improving care about mental health in their immediate environment.
As representatives of the society that too often misunderstands and discriminates against people with mental health issues, artists can benefit from this project mostly by taking the role of the “bridge” between psychiatric care users and the society. On an individual level, artists get the chance to participate actively in the dialog with people, otherwise invisible and out of reach. This dialog offers space and time for personal reflection, insight, creative flow- necessary components of every artistic process. But in this case, the process goes both ways- both participants of the dialog co-create art works in the co-created reality- both on physical and psychological level. The space and flow between the two are dense with emotional charge, due to the nature and goal of this encounter, and that is to produce a joint artwork that will reflect the way the two feel, think, communicate, and at the same time resonate with the spectator. The main benefit and change for the artists is the possibility to step back from their reality and into this co-created reality that offers them an opportunity to place someone else in front, follow their needs, and allow them to be guided in the process. Also it is a rather responsible role to be a messenger on behalf of such socially neglected individuals.
Art workshops with Gordana Belic
