Psychosis - Investigations Of The Human Mind

Psychosis is a long-term project. Through exhibitions, publications, film screenings and seminars we illuminate various aspects of the subject. The aim is to use art in order to deepen our understanding of the human psyche and our social relationships.

With I is Someone Else we want to produce an exhibition that deals less with artistic authenticity or the diagnosis of psychosis and more with the symptoms of the illness as the point of departure for describing transformations of the self. Even a healthy person is not constituted by a clearly delineated self; we harbour a whole set of potential selves. This is clearly captured in common expressions: I could be “beside myself” with worry, for example, or “not really myself today”, or I could “lose myself in my thoughts”.

A similar view of the possibility of multiple identities is expressed in the pamphlet of directions for use that accompany a particular anti-depression medication. Taking the medication, it warns, may cause the sense of “being apart from oneself and from reality”. Where, then, does the person feel like he or she is? If you’re “not yourself”, then who are you? And hearing voices in your head could be a symptom of mental illness, but under certain circumstances it’s considered entirely normal – if you heart them in the wakening state between dream and consciousness, for example. Further, those who claim to hear the voice of God are seldom declared unfit for that reason alone. The boundary between what is normal and what is abnormal is obviously blurry, malleable, and negotiable.

We imagine that works of art may be understood as symptoms, as “psychotic” without being expressions of illness. They can construct temporary wholes from splintered selves, and they can just as easily dissolve the illusion of a solid identity. Or they can simply pose unanswered questions about the nature of the self. And the exhibition’s artworks are not psychotic, because they communicate with the viewer and create the kind of dialogue that is impossible for someone suffering from psychosis. 

Participating artists: Beata Berggren, Maja Bajevic, Andreas Gedin, Matti Kallioinen,Renja Leino, Håkan Rehnberg, Aura Satz

Curators: Elsa Ekesiöö Thambert, Andreas Gedin, Joachim Granit, Fia Palmgren, Robert Stasinski

The catalogue for Psychosis II – I is someone else and Psychosis III – Hilda Hellwig is available as PDF down below.