“Amélie Ravalec's dazzling film Art & Mind is an
unparalleled chronicle, a journey into haunting, haunted places, which will
fascinate and captivate both experts in the field and those for whom its themes
are less familiar." - RAW VISION
MAGAZINE
ART & MIND [M]
on screen at The World Theatre
2PM SUN 20 OCT
one only screening
A journey into art, madness and the unconscious. An
exploration of visionary artists and the creative impulse, from the Flemish
Masters of the Renaissance to the avant-garde movement of Surrealism and the
unsung geniuses of Art Brut and Outsider Art.
Featuring artists Hieronymus Bosch, Francisco Goya, Vincent
Van Gogh, William Blake, Edvard Munch, Salvador Dali and many more.
Interviews with art historians, artists, museum
curators, psychiatrists, neuroscientists; and over 350 artworks from prestigious
museums and collections worldwide including Tate Britain, Musée d’Art Moderne
de la ville de Paris, Prinzhorn Collection, Rijksmuseum, La Halle Saint Pierre,
ABCD Collection, Outsider Art Fair, Wellcome Collection, Bethlem Museum of the
Mind, Lombroso Museum, Freud Museum, MAHHSA, Lille Métropole Museum of
Contemporary and Outsider Art, Maisons Victor Hugo, Adamson Collection, Museum
Dr Guislain, Henry Boxer Gallery and Museum Im Lagerhaus.
OUT NOW IN CINEMAS. OVER 800 SCREENINGS TO DATE.
SELECTED REVIEWS
“Art & Mind explores the interrelated creative impulses
of compulsion, vision, spiritual and conceptual fixations, and the inspiration
found in the deepest recesses of the human mind.” Northwest Film Forum
“This is a most engaging story. You will become lost,
submerged, and enthralled by the narrative developing in front of your eyes.
The film is a thorough and many layers deep investigation of the *unknown* in
art. Surrealist automatic writing, art brut, mental patients visions, high
gothic phantasmagoria, Goya nightmares... there is a common thread. Don't miss
this movie!” IMdB
“The artist’s mind is terra incognita for outsiders. What is
the nature of inspiration? What motivates a person to create? Why do people
with mental problems often have greater intellect and sensitivity than healthy
people? Amélie Ravalec’s film, dedicated to the study of the connection between
art and the secrets of the human psyche, tries to answer these questions.”
Pioner Russia
“The film presents us with a vivid cavalcade of artworks,
each of which is worthy of analysis, speculation and appreciation; and, by way
of expert commentary, locates the work in the philosophical and aesthetic
concepts of its era. Early notions of sin, infirmity, possession and psychic
transformation — all varieties of what was seen as ”folly”- give way to the
idea of melancholia as both a pathological condition and a source of wisdom and
insight, and later still to the embracing of unreason and the unconscious by
the avant—garde.” Raw Vision Magazine
ABOUT
Art & Mind explores the relationship between art and
madness. The theme of madness inspired some of the most incredible painters in
history, but mad people often experienced an unstoppable urge to create art
too. Art & Mind also investigates how visionary and avant-garde artists
sought to explore their unconscious mind as an inspiration for their art.
The theme of madness inspired artists since the Middle-Ages
to create truly magnificent paintings: the “Stone of Madness” by Hieronymus
Bosch and the Flemish Masters, the apocalyptic visions of Pieter Bruegel,
compelling depictions of asylums by Goya and countless portraits of madness
including Edvard Munch’s The Scream and Vincent Van Gogh’s Self Portrait with
Bandaged Ear.
Art & Mind traces the advances in the understanding of
the human mind and its influences on art. The emergence of the unconscious inspired
Romantic artists to explore the hidden realms of dreams and visions in their
art. Emerging psychology theories of Sigmund Freud and his contemporaries later
became a major source of inspiration for the Surrealists.
The border between visionary creation and madness is
sometimes tenuous, and many artists experienced bouts of madness. Van Gogh cut
his own ear while confined in a psychiatric hospital, William Blake had
conversations with dead poets, Goya was hearing voices and Munch was convinced
of being condemned into madness since birth. The Surrealists Leonora
Carrington, Unica Zürn and Antonin Artaud also spent time confined in asylums
and captured their experiences of madness in their art.
Stories of outsider artists are just as inspiring, ranging
from the 45-volumes magnum opus of Adolf Wölfli to the compelling portraits of
schizophrenia by Bryan Charnley. Art & Mind unveils the history of Art
Brut, from its foundations in the dark corners of Victorian asylums to being
exhibited in the world’s finest galleries, museums and private collections.
see Art & Mind world wide...
Director: Ruben Fleischer
