Blog Post #7

Hospital Borda
This hospital is in Argentina and is a psychiatric hospital. However, it is different in that it is focused on the "de-asylumization" of the institution by "seeking to restore dignity and respect to the mentally ill and to de-medicalize and de-stigmatize treatment for them". The doctors and community members are accomplishing this by creating a variety of activities for the patients to do, and one of those is to express their feelings through art. The art is not only there as a form of creative release for the patients, but it also accomplishes the goal of de-asylumization by covering the dreary gray walls of the hospital walls with colorful pictures that give a breath of life to the place. The art also spills into the outer walls of the building which allows for outsiders to the see the work of the patients and to appreciate it.

My favorite mural is this one because it caught my attention as soon as I saw it. I feel that it speaks to me about what these people are experiencing with their mental health situations. The man that has the smeared outline and it white on the inside says to me that the person who painted that feels empty and lost, and how they might feel like they are not anything special. The two people painting all have many different faces in them. I think this could be linked to schizophrenia in that from what I know about it, it is like living with many different voices in your head, and you feel like you are not one person, but all of these different voices.

Street Art In Chile

Street art has changed drastically in Chile from the time of the Ramona Parra Brigade to the present situation in Valparaiso. Back during the RPB times, the art was being used as a means of spreading a message and at one point, it was even backed by the government. "Operating publicly and supported by the State, the BRP’s practices shifted from the hidden and prohibited to the exposed and allowed. In other words, they moved from clandestine striped muralism produced by voiceless actors demanding collective needs, to mural painting in broad daylight produced by victorious political voices". However, in Valparaiso, the city is absolutely covered in the graffiti because there was no order in the city. The word that artists could paint freely here began to spread and many artists from around the world flocked to this place to paint. Now, they are not as free to paint as they once were. Permission is important now because the video discussed how the anti-graffiti attitude is getting more popular. Without permission, it will be erased. This is also similar to the RPB times because, during the Pinochet dictatorship, the murals of RPB would be painted over almost immediately, but permission was almost never given since the art was against the regime.