As mental health becomes increasingly central to conversations about living a healthy life, four international museums are teaming up for a new initiative that examines how art and culture can offer new perspectives on the subject. Called Mindscapes, the program is being funded by the Welcome Confidencea London health research charity foundation.
The year-long program is a partnership with the Brooklyn Museum in New York, the Mori Art Museum in Tokyo, the Gropius Bau in Berlin, and the Museum of Art and Photography in Bengaluru, India, as well as the Hamwe Festival in Kigali, Rwanda, and the Los Angeles Library Foundation and the Los Angeles Public Library.
The goal is to use art and culture, not just science, to help the one in five people around the world who have dealt with mental health problems, a concern that has become even more pressing in the last two years. due to the pandemic.
“Science cannot do this job alone,” Danielle Olsen, Wellcome’s head of cultural partnerships, said in a statement. “Working closely with cultural professionals – artists, writers, curators, designers and filmmakers – and bringing together people from widely diverse professional and disciplinary backgrounds, we are interested in what we can do together that we couldn’t do alone.”
Indu Antony, Kader Attia, Christine Wong Yap, Yuki Iiyama, Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm, and Guadalupe Maravilla, Mindscapes’ artists-in-residence. Photos courtesy of Mindscapes.
There will be exhibits and community events in all six cities that will address topics such as urbanization, poverty, discrimination, racism, and gender, and consider how to address mental health challenges in different contexts. The initiative will also bring together the world’s first open collaboration film on mental health.
Mindscapes has established international artist residencies for Indu Antony, Kader Attia, Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm, Guadalupe Maravilla, Christine Wong Yap, and Yuki Iiyama, with author and political activist Priya Basil as writer-in-residence. She will travel to Kenya and Rwanda, among other countries, to write a new atlas of mental health exploring how it has been understood in different nations, both historically and today.
Each of the artists has conducted community-based research in preparation for commissions with Wellcome’s partner institutions.
Maravilla will have a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in response to the trauma of the pandemic and civil unrest surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and the 2020 US presidential election, working with the museum’s teen program to create a “Healing Room”.
Priya Basil, Mindscape Writer-in-Residence. Photo courtesy of Mindscapes.
In Tokyo, Iiyama will tackle domestic violence and the Moris will host the group show “Listen to the Sound of the Earth Turning: Our Wellbeing Since the Pandemic.”
“On Caring, Repair and Healing” at the Gropius Bau will focus on First Nations and Indigenous knowledge systems, which prioritize caring for both the body and the environment, in a showcase of 20 international artists. For her Mindscapes project, Attia will examine how Berlin’s history has shaped the city’s collective memory and intergenerational trauma.
In Bangalore, Antony will look to create safe spaces that break mental health taboos in India. His three-part exhibition will take place at Kanike, his studio in middle-class Cooke Town; Lingarajapuram, a densely populated suburb of the city that is home to many workers; and the Museum of Art and Photography.
Falkenstrøm, Mindscapes’ international artist-in-residence, will collaborate with data workers in the AI industry for a project on mental health in the digital age. And Wong Yap, the artist at large, will visit civic spaces in various cities, studying how social infrastructure such as libraries, parks and community centers can improve mental health.
The Hamwe Festival will be exhibited in Kigali, Rwanda, from November 9 to 13, 2022.
“Guadalupe Maravilla: Tierra Blanca Joven” will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum, 200 Eastern Parkway, New York, from April 8, 2022 to September 18, 2022.
“Something in Common” will be on view at the Los Angeles Library Foundation and Los Angeles Public Library Main Library, 630 West 5th Street, Los Angeles, May 7-November 6, 2022.
“Listen to the Sound of the Earth Spinning: Our Wellbeing Since the Pandemic” will be exhibited at Mori Art Museum, Roppongi Hills Mori Tower, 53階 6 Chome-10-1 Roppongi, Minato City, Tokyo 106-6150, Japan, from June 29 to November 6, 2022.
“On Care, Repair and Healing” will be exhibited at Gropius Bau, Martin-Gropius-Bau, Niederkirchnerstraße 7, 10963 Berlin, Germany from September 16, 2022 to January 23, 2023.
The Indu Antony exhibition will open in the Museum of Art and Photography, Kasturba Rd, Shanthala Nagar, Ashok Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001, India, in November 2022.
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