State Art Gallery in Sopot

Plac Zdrojowy 2, 81-720 Sopot

19 June 2015 - 16 August 2015
Launch on 19 June 2015 at 7.30 pm (the exhibit can be visited from 6 pm)

The Palindrome exhibition presents the work of two divergent art circles, demonstrating the diversity of means of artistic expression yet identifying their common visual denominator. It is a set of works by both renowned artists, artists at the beginning of their career path as well as persons with permanent or temporary mental disorders, often living in isolation rooms of psychiatric hospitals. One of the fundamental assumptions of the show is the presentation and skilful arrangement of the works with a view to preventing the recognition of those by a healthy, professionally active artist and those by a mentally ill patient, isolated and on medications prescribed during clinical trials. This confrontation is meant to assure a common aesthetic level of the works displayed and to pilot the processes taking place during the production of visual art, which processes are revealed to the individual and the general public.
The objects gathered in this way will enhance the understanding of the phenomena and facilitate a smooth transition between a professional approach to art and its unconscious equivalent. This is a confrontation of the invited healthy artists and those on the brink of a mental illness with persons with a clear creative turn, institutionalised and treated with psychotropic medications. The main objects on display are paintings, with an addition of sculptures, sketches, notes, and 3D models of different thoughts, meant to facilitate an insight into the artist’s intention and the road taken for the work to come into being. The works of the former and the latter groups are the object of interest of psychiatrists and psychologists, who treat them as precious additions to their patients’ medical files and psycho-pathological information on creative individuals; they are moreover studied by art historians and artists themselves, who seek in them higher artistic values and new forms of expression.
The show is a result of many meetings with the artists, patients, families, heirs, collectors, lawyers, therapists, and psychiatrists.
/Robert Kuśmirowski, exhibition curator/

The work on display comes from the following collections:

Institute of Psychiatry and Neurology in Warsaw, Centre for Long-Term Psychiatry in Stronie Śląskie, Dr. Józef Babiński Specialist Hospital in Krakow, Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital in Lublin, Regional Hospital for Neuro-Psychiatric Patients in Świecie, Psychiatry Centre of Świętokrzyskie in Morawska, Mental Health Centre in Gdynia, Galeria Bielska BWA, MOS Gorzów Wielkopolski, Grażyna Kulczyk, Foksal Gallery Foundation, Guido Costa Projects, Turin, Johnen Galerie Berlin, Museum Dr Guislain in Ghent, SPATIF Sopot,

and from the following collectors:
Ms. Grażyna Kulczyk, Ms. Wanda Lacrampe.

Project part-financed by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage.

http://magazynszum.pl/do-zobaczenia/palindrom-w-panstwowej-galerii-sztuki-w-sopocie

link: http://www.pgs.pl/wpisy/palindrom