Duration
01/01/2021 - 31/12/2022
Team
Coord.: Mário Montenegro
Applications: Apoio em Parceria | Arte e Saúde Mental, 2021-2022
Funding: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian
Abstract
In March 2021, the organisation of the Ministry of Culture of Portugal Directorate-General for the Arts (DGArtes) supported 19 artistic projects within the framework of the Arts and Mental Health Programme. This programme aimed to create synergies, through the arts, that would help meet the challenges that were, and still are, faced in the field of mental health in Portugal, and to promote the struggle against the discrimination and stigma generally associated with mental illness. This line of funding resulted from a partnership with the P28 association.
The Hearing Voices project, produced by Marionet, resulted from this funding, with the partnership of the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra, the Hearing Voices Movement and Radio Aurora from the Júlio de Matos Hospital. The goal was to give visibility and contribute to the enlightenment of the experience of hearing voices that other people do not hear, so as to reduce the stigma surrounding it.
The Hearing Voices project took on the commitment to artistically approach the experience of hearing voices, portraying its meaning, sensory perception, changes through life, periods of crisis, but also alternative ones, and its place in a self-narrative.
In terms of social intervention, the project contributes to raise awareness of the experience of hearing voices and the diverse ways in which this experience is lived and understood, fighting stigma and discrimination and fostering positive responses to related experiences, by raising awareness of a variety of different ways of dealing with harsh or confusing voices, and promoting safe spaces for sharing.