Sophie Podolski, Untitled, ca. 1971-72, 50 x 65 cm, ink and coloured pencil on paper, courtesy Joëlle de La Casinière, Brussels
“More than we often realize, we are conditioned by conventions, consensus, tradition, culture, the collective unconscious perhaps. We imitate, repeat, follow our own and others’ habits. We have sensitive social antennas to scan the unwritten rules of behavior, of what is expected and what is not done in a certain social situation. Some people are less prone to follow this social scenario, as a matter of choice and/or less sensitive social antennas. From this position, they are better equipped to generate new ideas. These are the creative contrarians, a breed that Podolski undoubtedly belonged to. If creative sensitivity and mental vulnerability are two sides of the same medal, that certainly goes for Sophie Podolski.”
Erik Thys works as a psychiatrist in PSC St.-Alexius Elsene and UPC KU Leuven. Apart from his clinical work, he focuses on the link between creativity and psychopathology (as a researcher and as president of the non-profit organization KAOS), psychiatric stigma (the book Psychogenocide (2015) on the Nazi mass murder of psychiatric patients) and art (Portraits (2017) and Kunsttijdschrift Vlaanderen (2017)).
21.03.2018, 19:00 (nocturne)
In English
Auditorium
Free entrance