1 00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,000 Downloaded from YTS.MX 2 00:00:08,000 --> 00:00:13,000 Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX 3 00:00:35,204 --> 00:00:36,804 What is madness? 4 00:00:37,084 --> 00:00:38,804 Madness is a shift from the norm 5 00:00:39,084 --> 00:00:40,844 and from reality. 6 00:00:54,844 --> 00:00:58,244 Madness can have multiple meanings, it is infinite. 7 00:00:58,844 --> 00:01:00,284 As is the norm. 8 00:01:01,204 --> 00:01:03,244 We have a view of madness today, 9 00:01:03,644 --> 00:01:05,204 but what was the view of madness 10 00:01:05,484 --> 00:01:07,004 in the 17th century, the 18th century, 11 00:01:07,284 --> 00:01:08,444 in the Middle Ages? 12 00:06:06,084 --> 00:06:10,004 Hieronymus Bosch depicts fantastical worlds, 13 00:06:10,324 --> 00:06:12,724 linked to madness and chaos. 14 00:06:16,124 --> 00:06:19,484 He shows the complete lack of reason 15 00:06:19,764 --> 00:06:21,404 of the world, 16 00:06:21,764 --> 00:06:26,004 populated by chimeras and monsters. 17 00:06:39,444 --> 00:06:42,044 In 1494, Sebastian Brant 18 00:06:42,324 --> 00:06:44,524 published The Ship of Fools. 19 00:06:44,884 --> 00:06:47,284 listing the vices 20 00:06:47,564 --> 00:06:49,164 of Brant's contemporaries, 21 00:06:49,444 --> 00:06:52,484 allegorically embarked on a drunken boat. 22 00:07:15,764 --> 00:07:19,484 The ultimate allegory of madness is the jester. 23 00:07:21,724 --> 00:07:23,844 He becomes the iconographic theme of 24 00:07:24,124 --> 00:07:25,724 the lack of reason of the world, 25 00:07:26,004 --> 00:07:28,604 of which he is a grotesque mirror. 26 00:07:56,164 --> 00:07:59,404 There is the greatest contempt for madness as an allegory, 27 00:07:59,724 --> 00:08:02,684 because the madman is by definition an immoral being. 28 00:08:30,524 --> 00:08:33,524 The stone of madness, or stone of the head, 29 00:08:33,844 --> 00:08:36,564 dates from the 16th, 17th century. 30 00:08:39,124 --> 00:08:42,164 It comes from the Flemish school of painting. 31 00:08:42,764 --> 00:08:45,684 The realism of certain scenes suggests that 32 00:08:46,004 --> 00:08:49,364 those operations may have taken place at fairs 33 00:08:49,684 --> 00:08:53,004 where people also went to get a tooth pulled out. 34 00:10:05,684 --> 00:10:08,284 Everything has been tried to cure madness, 35 00:10:08,564 --> 00:10:09,844 and nothing has succeeded, 36 00:10:10,164 --> 00:10:12,324 but it is precisely because nothing succeeded 37 00:10:12,684 --> 00:10:15,204 that they constantly tried other treatments. 38 00:10:16,724 --> 00:10:19,484 Which lead a madman of the 19th century to say: 39 00:10:19,764 --> 00:10:23,124 "the more skilled they are, the more they scare me". 40 00:12:35,804 --> 00:12:37,604 The melancholy figure is that angel, 41 00:12:37,884 --> 00:12:40,124 its face is leaning on its fist, 42 00:12:41,284 --> 00:12:43,004 surrounded by disturbing 43 00:12:43,284 --> 00:12:45,164 cabalistic and hermetic signs. 44 00:12:47,204 --> 00:12:50,444 There is also a disembowelled bat in the sky 45 00:12:50,724 --> 00:12:52,924 on which reads "Melancholia". 46 00:14:43,004 --> 00:14:44,924 Here are two much darker visions from Goya. 47 00:14:45,564 --> 00:14:49,324 One is a painting from 1794 that represents 48 00:14:49,804 --> 00:14:52,524 the Yard with Lunatics in Zaragoza, 49 00:14:53,084 --> 00:14:56,844 a violent scene with two naked men fighting. 50 00:14:57,804 --> 00:15:00,164 The other one is The Madhouse 51 00:15:00,484 --> 00:15:03,724 with similar scenes of naked, agitated men. 52 00:15:04,724 --> 00:15:08,164 They are left alone to themselves and their animality. 53 00:17:24,284 --> 00:17:26,364 In the Sainte-Anne asylum collection, 54 00:17:26,644 --> 00:17:28,484 the oldest works are 55 00:17:28,804 --> 00:17:31,844 representations of madness 56 00:17:32,204 --> 00:17:34,564 made by artists 57 00:17:34,844 --> 00:17:37,604 who were hospitalized at that time. 58 00:17:39,084 --> 00:17:40,604 The most famous one is 59 00:17:40,884 --> 00:17:43,004 the Monomania of Envy by Géricault. 60 00:17:43,404 --> 00:17:45,164 It was during Géricault's internment 61 00:17:45,444 --> 00:17:47,084 that his psychiatrist asked him 62 00:17:47,364 --> 00:17:50,404 to paint portraits of people around him. 63 00:18:51,324 --> 00:18:54,564 This is the beginning of activities offered to patients. 64 00:18:54,924 --> 00:18:57,084 Pinel and his assistant understood that 65 00:18:57,364 --> 00:18:59,364 when the patient was offered things to do 66 00:18:59,644 --> 00:19:01,924 or things to create, 67 00:19:02,244 --> 00:19:06,444 it was a huge step in giving them more freedom. 68 00:19:07,564 --> 00:19:10,004 This is also the beginning of a secret artistic production, 69 00:19:10,324 --> 00:19:13,364 as art therapy did not really exist then. 70 00:19:14,404 --> 00:19:16,684 This is the start of a lot of artworks 71 00:19:17,004 --> 00:19:19,004 that are now considered Art Brut. 72 00:21:40,484 --> 00:21:43,884 William Bouguereau, Oreste pursued by the Furies. 73 00:21:44,204 --> 00:21:47,484 Orestes killed the two murderers of his father for revenge. 74 00:21:48,004 --> 00:21:49,884 He is now pursued by the three Frinyes, 75 00:21:50,284 --> 00:21:52,444 the furies of the Romans. 76 00:21:53,004 --> 00:21:54,924 He is driven mad by their persistent screams. 77 00:21:55,884 --> 00:21:57,564 Orestes tries to escape 78 00:21:57,844 --> 00:21:59,524 while his mother collapses behind him, 79 00:21:59,804 --> 00:22:01,204 a dagger in her heart. 80 00:22:05,324 --> 00:22:07,884 This is The Mad Woman by Otto Dix. 81 00:22:09,964 --> 00:22:13,284 Otto Dix also painted Nocturnal Encounter with a Lunatic, 82 00:22:13,684 --> 00:22:17,564 and The Madwoman of St. Marie-à-Py in his series on war. 83 00:22:24,724 --> 00:22:26,524 No illness has been more 84 00:22:26,804 --> 00:22:29,164 represented in art than madness, 85 00:22:29,444 --> 00:22:32,484 it inspired artists to paint madness, 86 00:22:32,844 --> 00:22:35,524 but also inspired madmen to paint. 87 00:22:44,124 --> 00:22:47,004 It is a condition that still can't be cured today. 88 00:22:47,364 --> 00:22:49,204 We can channel it, try to suppress it, 89 00:22:49,484 --> 00:22:50,924 but we can't cure it. 90 00:22:58,284 --> 00:23:02,324 Instead of attracting compassion, 91 00:23:02,644 --> 00:23:05,564 madness sometimes attracts derision and scorn. 92 00:23:08,884 --> 00:23:12,164 We reject it because it scares us, 93 00:23:12,564 --> 00:23:15,284 as it can threaten any of us, at any time. 94 00:23:18,404 --> 00:23:20,444 So I understand why this strange condition, 95 00:23:20,724 --> 00:23:22,524 which is not foreign to us, 96 00:23:22,844 --> 00:23:26,924 inspired painters and artists so often. 97 00:23:45,724 --> 00:23:48,644 Some of these artists were visionaries. 98 00:23:49,004 --> 00:23:51,324 But does this mean they were mad? 99 00:23:52,524 --> 00:23:56,084 Some artists suffered from visions, 100 00:23:56,444 --> 00:23:58,524 and their art was a reflection 101 00:23:58,804 --> 00:24:00,724 of their unconscious, 102 00:24:01,004 --> 00:24:04,044 They painted in a completely different way, 103 00:24:04,324 --> 00:24:06,524 far from the rational view of the world, 104 00:24:06,844 --> 00:24:08,524 creating hallucinatory works. 105 00:25:54,564 --> 00:25:57,204 Goya became ill from 1793 106 00:25:57,484 --> 00:25:58,884 and he suddenly went deaf. 107 00:25:59,204 --> 00:26:01,244 He was completely locked up in his inner world 108 00:26:01,524 --> 00:26:03,364 because of his deafness, 109 00:26:04,484 --> 00:26:06,724 and this completely changed his iconography 110 00:26:07,324 --> 00:26:10,764 as he turned towards the dark side of himself. 111 00:27:07,084 --> 00:27:09,164 The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, 112 00:27:09,484 --> 00:27:11,564 we see Goya himself 113 00:27:11,884 --> 00:27:14,324 half asleep on his work table, 114 00:27:14,604 --> 00:27:16,924 with nocturnal creatures above him 115 00:27:17,244 --> 00:27:19,244 invading his space. 116 00:27:19,724 --> 00:27:22,044 They're an entry to the nocturnal world, 117 00:27:22,324 --> 00:27:24,484 the nightmare and the unconscious. 118 00:27:26,284 --> 00:27:29,404 The animals represented are all nyctalopes, 119 00:27:29,684 --> 00:27:31,804 they have nocturnal vision, 120 00:27:32,164 --> 00:27:33,844 they see what others do not see, 121 00:27:34,124 --> 00:27:35,204 and this visionary side 122 00:27:35,484 --> 00:27:36,844 is what Goya wants to show, 123 00:27:37,444 --> 00:27:40,044 the artist is able to see beyond reality 124 00:27:40,364 --> 00:27:42,884 and see what everyone else can't see. 125 00:27:43,764 --> 00:27:45,364 The Sabbaths, the witches, 126 00:27:45,644 --> 00:27:47,244 but also madness and the madman, 127 00:27:47,524 --> 00:27:51,724 Goya explores the world of the extraordinary, 128 00:27:52,004 --> 00:27:54,724 showing a humanity that is always at the margin. 129 00:29:52,324 --> 00:29:54,404 The Romantics turn to themselves, 130 00:29:54,684 --> 00:29:57,204 give more importance to passion than to reason 131 00:29:57,484 --> 00:29:59,524 and give free rein to their imagination, 132 00:29:59,804 --> 00:30:04,204 and this also lead to the unconscious. 133 00:31:57,164 --> 00:31:59,044 We are far from knowing what happens 134 00:31:59,324 --> 00:32:01,164 in the brain during the creative process, 135 00:32:01,444 --> 00:32:03,044 but one theory is that there is 136 00:32:03,324 --> 00:32:05,404 an unconscious maturation that occurs 137 00:32:05,684 --> 00:32:08,484 during artistic activities or mathematics. 138 00:32:09,764 --> 00:32:11,484 We see it on brain imaging, 139 00:32:11,804 --> 00:32:14,284 a person can have a lot of brain activation, 140 00:32:14,564 --> 00:32:16,324 without consciousness. 141 00:32:17,124 --> 00:32:19,204 There is an extraordinarily complex system 142 00:32:19,484 --> 00:32:21,124 of unconscious activity 143 00:32:21,404 --> 00:32:22,684 constantly happening in the brain, 144 00:32:22,964 --> 00:32:25,324 which is partly responsible for ideas 145 00:32:25,604 --> 00:32:29,004 that arise suddenly in consciousness 146 00:32:29,284 --> 00:32:32,484 and take the form of artistic or scientific creation. 147 00:34:41,484 --> 00:34:44,404 Towards the end of the 19th century, psychiatrists 148 00:34:44,684 --> 00:34:47,844 started to take an interest in art made by their patients. 149 00:34:49,444 --> 00:34:52,404 They called it the art of the insane. 150 00:34:53,724 --> 00:34:55,804 They were open-minded doctors that 151 00:34:56,164 --> 00:34:59,044 saved these productions from being destroyed. 152 00:35:00,004 --> 00:35:01,804 Many simply threw them away 153 00:35:02,204 --> 00:35:05,364 or saw them as symptoms of degeneration. 154 00:35:42,404 --> 00:35:44,084 There is also the Scottish collection of 155 00:35:44,364 --> 00:35:47,004 the Crichton Psychiatric Hospital, from 1870. 156 00:35:48,564 --> 00:35:50,524 The Crichton Asylum is a two-tier asylum, 157 00:35:50,804 --> 00:35:52,324 like the English society of the time, 158 00:35:52,644 --> 00:35:54,764 where poor patients are kept busy 159 00:35:55,084 --> 00:35:57,644 with work, gardening and workshops, 160 00:35:58,124 --> 00:36:00,204 but rich patients couldn't be made to work 161 00:36:00,484 --> 00:36:03,284 so were kept busy with various activities, 162 00:36:03,564 --> 00:36:05,364 including of course art workshops. 163 00:36:07,924 --> 00:36:10,444 It's at the beginning of the 20th century 164 00:36:10,724 --> 00:36:12,724 that doctors really became passionate 165 00:36:13,004 --> 00:36:16,284 about the art of their patients. 166 00:36:16,604 --> 00:36:19,724 Marcel Réja published Art in Mad Men in 1907, 167 00:36:20,884 --> 00:36:23,204 and Dr. Marie, from the same department, 168 00:36:23,524 --> 00:36:26,364 also set up a museum in Villejuif. 169 00:36:30,684 --> 00:36:33,084 This gallery opened in Paris this week, 170 00:36:33,404 --> 00:36:35,644 resembling all other galleries 171 00:36:35,924 --> 00:36:38,724 But all their artworks were painted by lunatics, 172 00:36:39,004 --> 00:36:42,204 and some resemble the greatest masters. 173 00:36:42,764 --> 00:36:45,804 This is also the beginning of modern art, 174 00:36:46,484 --> 00:36:51,004 and people discover prehistoric art and African art. 175 00:36:51,284 --> 00:36:55,764 1907 is also the year Picasso paints Les Demoiselles d'Avignon. 176 00:37:36,884 --> 00:37:39,844 He made a clean sweep of everything, 177 00:37:40,404 --> 00:37:44,364 he reinvented arithmetic, geography, metric systems. 178 00:37:44,844 --> 00:37:49,684 This epic story is supported by a very complex system. 179 00:37:50,124 --> 00:37:54,404 It all makes sense, albeit in a very delirious mode. 180 00:38:14,284 --> 00:38:16,364 The Prinzhorn Collection was then used 181 00:38:16,644 --> 00:38:20,764 by the Nazis in their degenerate art exhibitions, 182 00:38:21,124 --> 00:38:22,924 where the works of patients were shown 183 00:38:23,204 --> 00:38:25,044 next to art by avant-garde artists 184 00:38:25,324 --> 00:38:28,004 to demonstrate that these artists were madmen 185 00:38:28,284 --> 00:38:29,884 and that their works could be destroyed. 186 00:39:05,204 --> 00:39:08,644 Surrealism was born in the late 191 Os, 187 00:39:09,564 --> 00:39:13,764 with a certain number of artists, poets, painters, 188 00:39:14,484 --> 00:39:18,044 that gathered around André Breton, 189 00:39:18,484 --> 00:39:21,764 who published the Manifesto of Surrealism in 1924. 190 00:39:41,964 --> 00:39:43,244 Everything was possible, 191 00:39:43,604 --> 00:39:45,084 the Surrealists gathered 192 00:39:45,404 --> 00:39:47,564 and undertook rituals in Paris... 193 00:39:48,484 --> 00:39:49,764 People were meeting each other 194 00:39:50,164 --> 00:39:51,724 thanks to fortuitous chance. 195 00:39:53,244 --> 00:39:55,804 André Breton was, as Marcel Duchamp said, 196 00:39:56,204 --> 00:40:00,124 "the lover of love in a world where prostitution reigns". 197 00:40:00,884 --> 00:40:03,004 His ecstasy, his youth and 198 00:40:03,284 --> 00:40:05,604 his vitality of thought inspired the others. 199 00:40:09,924 --> 00:40:11,644 The definition is quite simple: 200 00:40:12,164 --> 00:40:15,644 Surrealism will be a pure psychic automatism 201 00:40:16,084 --> 00:40:18,084 by which one proposes to express, 202 00:40:18,364 --> 00:40:20,444 the actual functioning of thought. 203 00:40:21,084 --> 00:40:23,164 Surrealism will try to highlight 204 00:40:23,444 --> 00:40:25,484 the unconscious mind in their art, 205 00:40:25,764 --> 00:40:28,084 previously discovered by psychoanalysts 206 00:40:28,364 --> 00:40:29,684 and especially by Freud. 207 00:40:38,764 --> 00:40:42,884 Freud's discoveries about dreams showed 208 00:40:43,164 --> 00:40:46,084 that there was an unconscious part of our minds, 209 00:40:46,364 --> 00:40:50,124 that allowed us to visualize 210 00:40:50,404 --> 00:40:53,404 the psychic reality of dreams. 211 00:41:15,444 --> 00:41:18,044 "The ego is not even master in its own house." 212 00:41:18,324 --> 00:41:22,044 Without necessarily being psychotic or crazy, 213 00:41:22,444 --> 00:41:24,684 we all have this unconscious behavior 214 00:41:24,964 --> 00:41:27,404 in everyday life and in dreams. 215 00:41:41,964 --> 00:41:44,564 The unconscious produces images, 216 00:41:45,444 --> 00:41:48,364 and the Surrealists tried by different techniques 217 00:41:48,644 --> 00:41:52,084 to reproduce these images 218 00:41:52,444 --> 00:41:56,324 that originated from their psyche. 219 00:42:08,204 --> 00:42:12,844 Dali read Freud's writings on paranoia. 220 00:42:14,444 --> 00:42:16,204 From a psychoanalytic point of view, 221 00:42:16,484 --> 00:42:19,004 paranoia is a frenzy of interpretation, 222 00:42:19,364 --> 00:42:21,844 it is not a hallucinatory phenomenon 223 00:42:22,444 --> 00:42:24,844 where we imagine things. 224 00:42:26,404 --> 00:42:27,884 The paranoid individual 225 00:42:28,164 --> 00:42:29,844 creates an interpretation of reality 226 00:42:30,324 --> 00:42:32,124 with elements drawn from reality, 227 00:42:32,764 --> 00:42:34,524 guided by an obsessing idea. 228 00:42:35,724 --> 00:42:38,484 Dali recognized himself in this process 229 00:42:39,004 --> 00:42:41,044 and he self-diagnosed as paranoid. 230 00:42:58,684 --> 00:43:01,364 Dali produced many paintings 231 00:43:01,724 --> 00:43:04,444 in which hidden images 232 00:43:05,124 --> 00:43:07,244 questioned the functioning of the mind. 233 00:43:09,324 --> 00:43:11,444 This "Paranoiac-Critical" method let him 234 00:43:11,724 --> 00:43:13,844 translate the visions and hallucinations 235 00:43:14,124 --> 00:43:15,804 that he experienced 236 00:43:16,724 --> 00:43:19,804 He wanted to express his fantasies 237 00:43:20,124 --> 00:43:22,564 through painting. 238 00:43:25,244 --> 00:43:27,244 Dali goes back and forth between 239 00:43:27,524 --> 00:43:29,724 the rational world and the irrational world, 240 00:43:30,004 --> 00:43:32,164 between the conscious and the unconscious, 241 00:43:32,444 --> 00:43:34,364 without falling into madness. 242 00:43:35,764 --> 00:43:38,204 He knows that some people did not manage to 243 00:43:38,484 --> 00:43:40,404 and have gone crazy, 244 00:43:40,764 --> 00:43:42,364 passing a point of no return. 245 00:43:43,244 --> 00:43:45,644 Thanks to Stefan Zweig, 246 00:43:45,924 --> 00:43:48,684 Dali meets Freud in London 247 00:43:48,964 --> 00:43:50,604 in July 1938. 248 00:43:51,564 --> 00:43:54,564 I brought Freud a painting, The Metamorphosis of Narcissus, 249 00:43:54,844 --> 00:43:56,804 and he liked it a lot. 250 00:43:57,204 --> 00:44:00,164 I also brought him the text I wrote 251 00:44:00,524 --> 00:44:04,364 about paranoid-critical activity. 252 00:44:04,684 --> 00:44:09,084 And Freud didn't want to look at it, 253 00:44:09,564 --> 00:44:11,524 so I punched the table and said, 254 00:44:11,924 --> 00:44:14,724 you have to read it or the painting is worthless! 255 00:44:15,524 --> 00:44:18,244 Dali sought Freud's approval regarding 256 00:44:18,564 --> 00:44:21,444 the psychoanalytical depth of his painting. 257 00:44:21,724 --> 00:44:25,804 Unfortunately Freud refused to play this game. 258 00:44:26,364 --> 00:44:28,724 Freud told me that 259 00:44:29,004 --> 00:44:32,324 Surrealism didn't interest him much 260 00:44:32,604 --> 00:44:35,084 because the hidden meaning 261 00:44:35,404 --> 00:44:38,684 was already obvious in the paintings. 262 00:44:39,244 --> 00:44:41,404 Freud admits that after meeting 263 00:44:41,684 --> 00:44:43,924 this "fanatic Spaniard", 264 00:44:44,204 --> 00:44:46,604 his point of view on Surrealism changed, 265 00:44:46,884 --> 00:44:49,604 Freud no longer took them for lunatics 266 00:44:50,164 --> 00:44:53,164 but thought there may be something interesting about them. 267 00:45:02,364 --> 00:45:05,804 André Breton worked as a psychiatric nurse from 1916, 268 00:45:06,124 --> 00:45:07,964 and he is sent to Saint Dizier 269 00:45:08,244 --> 00:45:10,604 in a neuropsychiatric center. 270 00:45:10,964 --> 00:45:13,684 He meets soldiers coming back from the front, 271 00:45:13,964 --> 00:45:16,524 transformed by the experience of war. 272 00:45:17,964 --> 00:45:21,284 Breton discovers madness through their words 273 00:45:22,324 --> 00:45:24,684 and think their psychic dysfunction create 274 00:45:25,204 --> 00:45:27,924 an extremely interesting form of poetry. 275 00:45:29,084 --> 00:45:32,564 André Breton was especially interested in poetry. 276 00:45:32,844 --> 00:45:35,364 One of the thing that played a big role 277 00:45:35,644 --> 00:45:37,404 in the history of Surrealism 278 00:45:37,684 --> 00:45:40,404 was his approach of psychiatry 279 00:45:40,684 --> 00:45:42,644 and mad people. 280 00:45:44,124 --> 00:45:48,084 He focused on what we can call alienation, 281 00:45:48,364 --> 00:45:52,564 which is often close to both genius and poetry. 282 00:46:00,324 --> 00:46:04,204 Their creative process meant that 283 00:46:04,684 --> 00:46:08,364 madness was not just something destructive 284 00:46:08,644 --> 00:46:11,644 but sometimes enabled the creation 285 00:46:12,124 --> 00:46:15,324 of totally unconscious and superb work. 286 00:47:28,844 --> 00:47:31,324 Breton and Philippe Soupault decided 287 00:47:31,604 --> 00:47:34,044 to quickly write everything 288 00:47:34,324 --> 00:47:36,684 that passed through their heads. 289 00:47:37,084 --> 00:47:39,644 Those sentences and words formed 290 00:47:39,964 --> 00:47:43,484 a poetry of spontaneity and chance. 291 00:47:45,964 --> 00:47:47,644 A consciousness that lets itself go, 292 00:47:47,924 --> 00:47:50,244 far from any acquired morality, 293 00:47:50,524 --> 00:47:52,124 far from all culture, 294 00:47:52,404 --> 00:47:54,564 the conscious self must express itself, 295 00:47:54,884 --> 00:47:56,844 the real becomes the surreal. 296 00:48:15,844 --> 00:48:18,404 Breton takes a great interest in the experiments 297 00:48:18,764 --> 00:48:21,884 that Charcot conducted at the Salpétriére hospital, 298 00:48:22,324 --> 00:48:25,284 experiments on hypnosis and hysteria. 299 00:48:43,324 --> 00:48:47,204 Charcot's work showed that madness and hysteria 300 00:48:47,524 --> 00:48:50,484 weren't just hereditary conditions 301 00:48:50,844 --> 00:48:54,364 but were pathways of dysfunction of the psyche 302 00:48:54,844 --> 00:48:59,404 that could be understood differently. 303 00:49:30,364 --> 00:49:33,004 Many Surrealist experienced 304 00:49:33,284 --> 00:49:36,044 periods of internment in asylums: 305 00:49:36,684 --> 00:49:38,484 Leonora Carrington, 306 00:49:38,884 --> 00:49:41,284 Hans Bellmer's wife, Unica Zürn, 307 00:49:41,564 --> 00:49:43,844 and Antonin Artaud, 308 00:49:44,164 --> 00:49:46,564 one of the great figures of Surrealism. 309 00:49:47,524 --> 00:49:49,684 These artists had the experience 310 00:49:49,964 --> 00:49:51,804 of both being in the norm 311 00:49:52,444 --> 00:49:54,564 and at the same time 312 00:49:54,844 --> 00:49:57,684 of being interned 313 00:49:57,964 --> 00:50:00,524 in asylums. 314 00:50:02,164 --> 00:50:05,844 They tried to transcribe this experience 315 00:50:06,164 --> 00:50:09,364 into their art. 316 00:50:10,564 --> 00:50:11,484 Breton used to say: 317 00:50:11,764 --> 00:50:14,084 "Be careful not to go too far when painting, 318 00:50:14,564 --> 00:50:18,124 when searching for the unconscious, for automatism" 319 00:50:18,404 --> 00:50:21,244 as there was sometimes a point of no return. 320 00:50:21,764 --> 00:50:25,484 These experiences could be dangerous psychologically. 321 00:50:57,724 --> 00:51:00,684 Leonora Carrington was completely 322 00:51:00,964 --> 00:51:03,204 inhabited by her art, 323 00:51:03,604 --> 00:51:06,684 Her work draws on esotericism, 324 00:51:06,964 --> 00:51:09,004 magic and occultism. 325 00:51:09,404 --> 00:51:12,444 It's a door to the wonderful world 326 00:51:12,764 --> 00:51:16,444 of Carrington's universe. 327 00:51:22,364 --> 00:51:24,724 There was a similar context for Unica Zürn, 328 00:51:25,004 --> 00:51:27,084 she met Hans Bellmer, 329 00:51:27,404 --> 00:51:29,124 moved to Paris, 330 00:51:29,404 --> 00:51:32,044 and got involved in Surrealism. 331 00:51:32,964 --> 00:51:36,684 Her works reflected an unease and her madness 332 00:51:37,004 --> 00:51:39,324 and she was interned in psychiatric hospitals. 333 00:51:40,524 --> 00:51:42,604 In a book called Dark Spring, 334 00:51:42,884 --> 00:51:43,884 Unica Zürn 335 00:51:44,164 --> 00:51:46,524 experiences with a writing 336 00:51:46,804 --> 00:51:49,084 that goes through more or less normal phases 337 00:51:49,364 --> 00:51:52,484 but also into a descent into schizophrenic crises. 338 00:51:52,964 --> 00:51:56,204 We can see in her writing this crossing of borders 339 00:51:56,564 --> 00:51:59,884 between madness and non-madness. 340 00:52:00,804 --> 00:52:02,924 She talks about her illness 341 00:52:03,204 --> 00:52:04,844 with clarity and a lot of humor, 342 00:52:05,204 --> 00:52:07,364 she also describes her hallucinations. 343 00:52:07,644 --> 00:52:09,564 Both her book and visual productions 344 00:52:09,844 --> 00:52:11,284 are beautiful. 345 00:53:26,204 --> 00:53:27,484 Antonin Artaud said: 346 00:53:27,764 --> 00:53:31,484 "I am already dead, but I accept madness as life." 347 00:53:31,764 --> 00:53:33,644 Madness was his life. 348 00:53:48,244 --> 00:53:51,924 He wanted to challenge the official culture, 349 00:53:52,244 --> 00:53:55,444 specific to our Western way of thinking, 350 00:53:55,724 --> 00:53:58,164 where culture is placed in a dominant position, 351 00:53:58,564 --> 00:54:01,724 This culture is inhibiting, especially for art. 352 00:54:02,164 --> 00:54:05,044 It cuts you off from your creative roots. 353 00:54:57,684 --> 00:55:00,484 Augustin Lesage was at the bottom of a coal mine in 1912 354 00:55:00,764 --> 00:55:02,324 when he heard a voice telling him 355 00:55:02,604 --> 00:55:03,884 that he must become a painter. 356 00:55:05,724 --> 00:55:07,324 He told one of his friends 357 00:55:07,604 --> 00:55:09,444 and they joined a spirit circle. 358 00:55:09,724 --> 00:55:12,244 During a seance, Lesage's hand takes a pencil, 359 00:55:12,524 --> 00:55:14,564 and starts drawing without control. 360 00:55:20,644 --> 00:55:22,284 Mediumnic artists fascinate me, 361 00:55:24,244 --> 00:55:27,284 these great delirious artists inhabited by God. 362 00:55:27,564 --> 00:55:30,044 Their hand move freely, 363 00:55:30,564 --> 00:55:32,564 inspired by spirits and the dead. 364 00:55:32,884 --> 00:55:35,804 This is not far from big psychotic delusions. 365 00:55:39,764 --> 00:55:43,724 George Widener has the same syndrome as Rain Man: 366 00:55:44,124 --> 00:55:47,204 the extraordinary memory capacity. 367 00:55:47,564 --> 00:55:49,684 You give him a page and in a split second 368 00:55:50,084 --> 00:55:51,724 he memorizes it all. 369 00:55:52,724 --> 00:55:55,444 George Widener tries to predict the future, 370 00:55:55,724 --> 00:55:57,284 having invented 371 00:55:57,564 --> 00:55:59,484 a whole system of grids of numbers 372 00:55:59,764 --> 00:56:02,244 to anticipate what will happen. 373 00:56:03,364 --> 00:56:05,724 In his artwork called Sunday Crash, 374 00:56:06,004 --> 00:56:08,084 he wrote down all the plane crashes 375 00:56:08,524 --> 00:56:12,124 that will happen on Sundays during the next 100 years. 376 00:56:17,644 --> 00:56:20,204 Henry Darger's great work is 377 00:56:20,564 --> 00:56:23,284 this 15,000-page novel, 378 00:56:23,564 --> 00:56:25,804 The Realms of the Unreal, 379 00:56:26,364 --> 00:56:30,644 which is a great saga with a war between two clans. 380 00:56:31,684 --> 00:56:34,724 The story is centered around the Vivian Girls, 381 00:56:35,124 --> 00:56:37,884 seven little princesses who fight 382 00:56:38,244 --> 00:56:39,324 against the bad adults, 383 00:56:39,684 --> 00:56:40,604 the Glandelinians. 384 00:56:44,604 --> 00:56:46,444 All the clichés about the purity of the artist 385 00:56:46,724 --> 00:56:48,764 are actually true for Darger, 386 00:56:49,284 --> 00:56:52,284 he is the ultimate self-taught outsider 387 00:56:52,564 --> 00:56:55,324 and his work was discovered after his death. 388 00:57:38,524 --> 00:57:41,884 People who are considered marginals or abnormals 389 00:57:42,164 --> 00:57:46,684 are suddenly the best example of individual freedom. 390 00:57:48,644 --> 00:57:50,844 Art brut can even remain secret. 391 00:57:51,684 --> 00:57:53,844 This is the freest act of creation. 392 00:57:54,644 --> 00:57:56,524 The artists do not create to be recognized, 393 00:57:56,844 --> 00:57:59,444 they do not create to sell or to eat, 394 00:57:59,924 --> 00:58:01,244 the artists only create to exist. 395 00:58:01,524 --> 00:58:03,764 It's an extraordinary lesson on a human level. 396 00:58:27,644 --> 00:58:29,724 These artists invent a new system, 397 00:58:30,284 --> 00:58:32,804 the ability to invent 398 00:58:33,084 --> 00:58:34,924 new forms and languages. 399 00:58:39,724 --> 00:58:40,724 It appeals to us because 400 00:58:41,004 --> 00:58:42,844 I think that this system 401 00:58:43,164 --> 00:58:45,604 uses ancient mental structures 402 00:58:45,884 --> 00:58:48,324 that we all have when we are babies. 403 00:58:51,764 --> 00:58:54,444 The mind of these artists function 404 00:58:54,724 --> 00:58:57,484 in a complete different way than ours. 405 00:59:00,564 --> 00:59:03,684 Normal people compartmentalize everything: 406 00:59:04,164 --> 00:59:07,324 history, geography, God, science, etc. 407 00:59:07,764 --> 00:59:09,044 Psychotics don't. 408 00:59:11,164 --> 00:59:14,764 We performed experiments on schizophrenic patients. 409 00:59:15,164 --> 00:59:18,564 Their unconscious treatment of information was fine, 410 00:59:18,844 --> 00:59:20,404 even slightly increased, 411 00:59:20,684 --> 00:59:22,644 but their awareness of conscious information 412 00:59:22,924 --> 00:59:24,324 was abnormal. 413 00:59:24,764 --> 00:59:27,804 It means that reality always appears abnormal, 414 00:59:28,124 --> 00:59:29,924 at all levels of the brain. 415 00:59:32,644 --> 00:59:35,004 The consequence is that 416 00:59:35,284 --> 00:59:37,444 patients start confabulating, 417 00:59:37,724 --> 00:59:40,284 thinking there are hidden levels of reality, 418 00:59:40,564 --> 00:59:42,684 that they are being spied on, 419 00:59:42,964 --> 00:59:45,564 that people know too much about them, 420 00:59:46,084 --> 00:59:47,484 a certain sense of paranoia. 421 00:59:51,724 --> 00:59:52,724 We can speculate 422 00:59:53,084 --> 00:59:55,484 on what it does to their mind: 423 00:59:55,964 --> 00:59:59,284 a liberation of some unconscious behaviors, 424 00:59:59,564 --> 01:00:02,084 that are repetitive and automatic. 425 01:01:26,844 --> 01:01:28,884 You very rarely find representations 426 01:01:29,284 --> 01:01:31,884 of the suffering mad man in art brut. 427 01:01:32,924 --> 01:01:34,484 In the history of art, 428 01:01:34,764 --> 01:01:37,044 this extreme pain has been shown many times. 429 01:01:38,684 --> 01:01:41,444 When Goya paints madness, 430 01:01:41,724 --> 01:01:43,444 he shows the anguished madman, 431 01:01:43,724 --> 01:01:45,324 the hallucinated madman, 432 01:01:46,684 --> 01:01:48,524 but they never showed 433 01:01:48,884 --> 01:01:51,684 the psychic, creative richness 434 01:01:52,004 --> 01:01:54,244 of this ability to create. 435 01:01:54,564 --> 01:01:56,284 Only mad people can. 436 01:01:58,644 --> 01:02:01,164 Art and madness have always coexisted. 437 01:02:01,524 --> 01:02:03,924 It is obvious that there is often 438 01:02:04,204 --> 01:02:08,804 a form of creativity in psychiatric conditions. 439 01:03:14,484 --> 01:03:16,844 Alienation can lead to creativity, 440 01:03:17,164 --> 01:03:20,244 which reminds me of Edgar Poe's famous statement: 441 01:03:20,564 --> 01:03:22,484 "Men have called me crazy, 442 01:03:22,804 --> 01:03:25,244 but science has not yet decided 443 01:03:25,524 --> 01:03:27,284 whether madness is, or not, 444 01:03:27,564 --> 01:03:29,484 the greatest intelligence. 445 01:03:50,724 --> 01:03:52,444 Madness is not fun or enjoyable, 446 01:03:52,724 --> 01:03:54,364 so we must also demystify it. 447 01:03:55,324 --> 01:03:57,844 It fascinates me, because it allows me 448 01:03:58,164 --> 01:04:00,244 to understand areas of the brain 449 01:04:00,524 --> 01:04:02,324 that are extraordinary 450 01:04:02,844 --> 01:04:04,724 but that does not mean 451 01:04:05,004 --> 01:04:06,604 that it is wonderful to be mad. 452 01:04:09,244 --> 01:04:11,164 One can have a rejoicing view of madness 453 01:04:11,444 --> 01:04:12,524 through Art Brut, 454 01:04:12,804 --> 01:04:15,884 but the artists suffer from their difficulty 455 01:04:16,284 --> 01:04:19,404 to fit with the reality of the world. 456 01:04:20,004 --> 01:04:21,684 But they also have an experience 457 01:04:21,964 --> 01:04:23,884 and understanding of the world 458 01:04:24,164 --> 01:04:25,724 totally different from ours, 459 01:04:26,004 --> 01:04:28,524 and at times, what comes out of these experiences 460 01:04:28,884 --> 01:04:31,324 is magical, a great work of art.