We will look at the images of the mental patients in the fin-de-siècle Parisian hospital Salpêtrière, many of which challenge the boundary between artistic representation and medical documentation. In light of day one, during the following Sunday, over a Surrealist Brunch,
Over brunch, discover some of the grotesque dances by Valeska Gert (Weimar Era), and dance-theater of Pina Bausch and Mats Ek (1970s-80s). Dada and surrealism will not be left behind. We will explore how the aesthetic de-hierarchicalization and commodity culture inform our practices as witnesses and witnessed art makers.
Through theory and practice we will examine the psychoanalytic concept of the unconscious in the late 19th to 20th century. Starting with the fin-de-siècle Parisian hospital Salpêtrière, we will touch upon the historical resonances of the invention of mental pathology, and aesthetic forms that resonance has instigated.