LOOKING AT MENTAL HEALTH FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
Wellcome Trust presents Mindscapes: a major international cultural programme that aims to expand how we understand, address and talk about mental health. Through art, Mindscapes invites its partners in cities around the world to look at mental health from different perspectives.
The year-long programme will comprise artist residencies, a crowd-sourced documentary, exhibitions and community events staged in a number of cities around the world throughout 2022. These are spearheaded by an international network of cultural research leads whose work has engaged with the friction of assembling a diversity of talents and viewpoints in conversations about mental health. The summative work will be presented in partnership with major institutions including: Brooklyn Museum, New York; Gropius Bau, Berlin; Hamwe Festival, Kigali; the Library Foundation of Los Angeles/Los Angeles Public Library; Mori Art Museum, Tokyo; and Museum of Art and Photography, Bengaluru.
Mental health problems are a growing public health concern, with anxiety and depression among the leading causes of illness and disability, affecting millions globally each year. Around one in five (19%) people globally report having experienced anxiety or depression at some point, with the majority (62%) having their first experience before turning 30.
Mindscapes opens a rich dialogue about what mental health means in different places. In its international scope, the programme uncovers themes that are both universal and incredibly specific. From urbanisation to racism, discrimination and exclusion, gender, poverty, and the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on us all, Mindscapes sheds light on the varying experiences of, and community approaches to, tackling mental health challenges in different contexts. Reflections, lessons and insights from this project will support ideas around future cross-sectoral networks in mental health work, as well as realising potential policy goals.
The six Mindscapes artists in residence have each undertaken community-based research in key cities that will inspire and inform new commissions to be presented in exhibitions at Wellcome’s international partner institutions. Resident artist in New York, Guadalupe Maravilla draws on his experience of migration, trauma and healing; while for her project in Tokyo, Yuki Iiyama documents stories of those who are dealing with domestic violence. Berlin-based Kader Attia explores how the marks of history have impacted collective memory and intergenerational trauma in the city; and in Bengaluru, Indu Antony addresses the taboo surrounding mental health in India, creating space where people can come together to care for themselves and each other.
Mindscapes international artist-in-residence, Cecilie Waagner Falkenstrøm’s work focuses on mental health in the digital age, bringing together the voices of data workers in the artificial intelligence industry. Mindscapes artist-at-large, Christine Wong Yap, will work in multiple cities to explore the role of civic spaces – libraries, parks and community centres – in building social infrastructures that can have a positive impact on mental health.
About Wellcome
The work of the Cultural Partnerships team links Wellcome’s scientific approaches to society’s health challenges by co-producing imaginative and inclusive cultural programmes, and by supporting research that draws on different types of expertise and experience. We extend Wellcome’s reach by understanding people beyond existing networks, and strengthen it through the insights of locally grounded conversations in international settings.
Ethos
We are working towards a world in which:
Significant shifts in understanding lead to improved human health.
No one is held back by mental health problems.
Escalating infectious diseases are under control in the communities most affected.
Climate change does not harm health in the communities it affects most.
Cover photo credit Credit:
Thomas S.G. Farnetti / Wellcome
