When I begin to mentally
crumble, it feels as if I have physical cracks all over my body. Thus begins an
ancestral cycle of madness and recovery.
Based on the antiquity of this process, I have
decided to speak about the relationship between mental illness and artistic
creation, drawing on the theory of inspiration developed by the Greek
philosopher Plato in his dialogue Phaedrus. That is why I use Greek terms and
speak in Platonic terms. The tetrahedron (fire, intense and painful) supports
and organizes female heads represented as statues to align with the thematic
context.
The work tells the story of mental collapse. A
story that begins when the pharmakon (healing) is not enough and ends up
cracking. The increase in medication appears, the hospitalization marked by
stòma, which means crack but comes from mouth. We then arrive at hybris,
excess, insolence, surpassing the limits of the human condition. Finally, we
end with mania, madness.
The piece is exhibited in galleries, but ideally it
is intended to be carried in procession by two people dressed in black with
pride to emphasize the dynamic nature of the work, as it deals with the
circular journey of mental illness. The people dressed in black symbolize the
"death" of the identity constructed within rational limits. Finally,
the piece, a hospital sheet, is ornamented on a branch torn by the wind, symbolizing the ostracism
due to mental illness.
