Living Museum

It is a space for artistic creation that promotes expression, inclusion and social transformation for people with mental illness and/or disability in a welcoming environment.

HISTORY

The first Living Museum was born at Creedmoor Psychiatric Hospital in New York in 1983. It was founded by Hungarian artist and psychologist Janos Marton and Polish artist Bolek Greczynski in the hospital’s former dining room.

As Bolek was the first artist and director of the Living Museum, they first opened the art space to forty patients of the hospital, a group with whom they cleaned and arranged the space, thus projecting an ever-changing place, full of art and beauty, and with a familiar and welcoming atmosphere.

The rehabilitation process was always a collaborative work among equals, where the space was quickly transformed into a laboratory of artistic creation and a museum. The group of people who rehabilitated the space created an artistic universe formed by paintings that emerged from the walls, chairs and tables, or from the pipes, and also from abandoned objects of hospital use such as food pans or old straitjackets.

A few weeks after the rehabilitation of the space, Bolek planned the first exhibition, inviting numerous artists and inaugurating the Living Museum, which currently hosts a large number of creative people.

THE CONCEPT

Living Museum’s philosophy is not to find a new form of treatment, but to rely on a human approach to build a welcoming and inclusive space through art. Bolek Greczynski’s famous phrase “let your vulnerability be your weapon” has become the main motto of Living Museum, whose approach openly recognizes a great creative capacity in people with psychic suffering, and emphasizes their creative impulse to immerse themselves in an artistic process, celebrating individual differences and vulnerabilities, and including them as part of the creative process of life.

The birth of the concept was largely influenced by the European art scene of the time, especially by the approaches of the German artist Joseph Beuys, by the artistic experiences of the artists of the Prinzhorn Collection in Heidelberg (Germany) and the Gugging Artists’ House in Klosterneuburg (Austria), and also by the work of the psychiatrists Ronald D. Laing and Thomas Szasz, both liberal thinkers associated with the anti-psychiatry movement of the 1960s.

LIVING MUSEUM IN THE WORLD

One of Janos Marton’s dreams since the birth of Living Museum was the multiplication of the project on a local, national and international scale.
In 1993, the German artist and art director Rose Ehemann visited the Living Museum for the first time and, fascinated by its philosophy, returned several times for extended stays. In 2002, she founded the first Living Museum in Europe in the city of Wil (Switzerland) linked to the Psychiatrie St. Gallen Nord clinic, of which she is currently the director.
In 2013, the Living Museum Society was created, an association that supports the creation of more Living Museums around the world and encourages the connection and networking between them.
There are currently more than 25 Living Museum sites around the world, such as the Living Museum Alb in Germany, The Living Museum Project in the Netherlands, or the Living Museum in Korea, Georgia, Austria or Spain, among others.
Through the Living Museum Society, there are also shared international exhibitions and fairs that involve the work and creative proposals of artists from the different Living Museums of the world.

Living Museum Wil, Switzerland. Duration 6:54 min. Video by Living Museum Society

LIVING MUSEUM MADRID

Living Museum Madrid was born in 2022 with the aim of bringing the philosophy and benefits of Living Museum to Spain. It is based on the original project founded in New York in 1983, a movement that bets on the creation of artistic workshops for the inclusion of people with mental illness or other diversities, being some of its main objectives the personal and professional resignification through art, the promotion of personal and social welfare, and the reduction of the stigma associated with mental illness.
We currently conduct artistic residencies every Wednesday from 10:30 am to 2:00 pm at the Center for Contemporary Culture Condeduque. The artistic workshop is a space where people develop their creative projects, promoting their artistic career and fostering safe and stress-free spaces adapted to individual needs and rhythms. In addition, socialization through art is important. Living Museum encourages dialogue and artistic exchange, and the creation of support networks.

OBJECTIVES

Slide 1

El arte como espacio de transformación

Living Museum pone en valor el potencial del arte y la expresión creativa como mejora de la salud e impulso de transformación.

Ofrecemos espacios de creación artística y de empoderamiento para personas que se enfrentan a una situación de dolencia psíquica u otras diversidades. Alimentar el potencial creativo y artístico permite aprovechar la vulnerabilidad como fortaleza, construyendo a través del taller de arte espacios de recuperación y desarrollo personal y profesional. Este viaje fomenta una transformación positiva de la identidad de “paciente o persona usuaria” a artista, promoviendo el crecimiento, la resiliencia y el bienestar.

Artista Irune Tanco en las segundas residencias de Living Museum Madrid

Slide 2

Una comunidad de arte y cuidado

Living Museum fomenta la creación espacios compartidos y comunitarios a través del arte, tendiendo puentes de apoyo a través de redes de artistas, profesionales de la educación artística, arteterapeutas y personas con experiencia vivida. Al construir una red compartida en torno al arte, contrarrestamos el aislamiento social, facilitando relaciones estables y la conexión a largo plazo con una comunidad de cuidados.

Primeras Residencias de Living Museum Madrid
Fotografía de Bego Solís

Slide 3

Un espacio seguro y libre de estrés

Living Museum ofrece espacios artísticos estructurados, acogedores y libres de estrés donde las personas pueden llevar a cabo con los apoyos necesarios sus proyectos de vida, y sus intereses personales y profesionales compartiendo con otras personas creadoras.
La dolencia psíquica se relaciona con una mayor sensibilidad al estrés, por lo que Living Museum construye un espacio que deja a un lado las elevadas exigencias de los acelerados entornos laborales y sociales actuales, ayudando también a reducir la estigmatización que supone tener un diagnóstico en salud mental y/o condición de discapacidad.

Artista Alicia Utiyama en las Primeras Residencias de Living Museum Madrid
Fotografía de Bego Solís

Slide 4

El arte como espacio de encuentro cultural y social

Artista Zarco en la exposición final El despliegue de la pausa
Fotografía de Rocío Moneo Carmona

Living Museum Family

Laura Carmona Ayuso

Art therapist specialized in the clinical field of mental health (PDAG), Switzerland
Mother of two boys and one girl
Founder of Living Museum Madrid

Dra. Julia Morla

Art therapist
PhD in Feminist and Gender Studies.
Teacher and researcher (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Founder of Living Museum Madrid

Javier Lapuerta Laorden

Cultural activist dedicated to promoting access to art and citizen participation.
Founder of Living Museum Madrid

Piedad García-Murga

Art therapist
Teacher and predoctoral researcher (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Creator and expert in the first person
Living Museum Madrid Team

Dra. Marta lage

PhD in Fine Arts
Teacher and researcher (Universidad Complutense de Madrid)
Coordinator of the Master in Art Therapy and Art Education for Social Inclusion.
Living Museum Madrid Team