17.4.2012

Madness As Insight

Exhibition | Turku Main Library, Linnankatu 2 | Jan 5^th – Jan 31^st 2012

The exhibition Madness As Insight by Mieke Bal and Michelle Williams Gamaker is on display through January 2012 in the Entrance Hall of the Main Library. Parts of the exhibition can also be seen from the Library Courtyard during evenings as projections on the library façade.

The exhibition is a media installation by Dutch cultural theoretician/artist Mieke Bal and English scholar/artist Michelle Williams Gamaker. It is linked to another exhibition, called Landscapes of Madness, currently (Oct. 21^st 2011 – Jan. 29^th 2012) shown at the museum Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova in Turku. These two exhibitions now current on respective sides of the River Aura are a part of an extensive international art and research project called Mère Folle (Crazy Mother). More info on the project: www.crazymothermovie.com

Madness As Insight presents video works by Bal and Williams Gamaker. With the help of  e.g. interviews shown on video, the exhibition shown in the library also illuminates the background of the project.

At the same time, the library’s showcases in the Entrance Hall and in the Non-Fiction Department are filled with historical material from and about the Seili / Själö mental hospital that was active in the Turku archipelago as late as the 1960s.

Both exhibitions are based on the film A Long History of Madness (2011, 120 min.) by Mieke Bal and Michelle Williams Gamaker, which is now shown for the second time in the Studio at the Main Library on Wednesday, Jan. 18th at 5.30 p.m., this time with Finnish subtitles. Based on the book Mère Folle (Crazy Mother) by French psychoanalyst Françoise Davoine, the film was shot in several locations in Netherlands, Spain, France, Switzerland and Finland  - for instance on the island of Seili / Själö.

The exhibition was carried out as a collaboration between the Turku City Library, the University of Turku and Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova.

Additional information:

Gunnar Högnäs, Information Specialist, Turku City Library
Tel. 044 907 28 22, gunnar.hognas@turku.fi
Mia Hannula, curator of the exhibition Landscapes of madness, University of Turku
Tel. 040 0530831, miahan@utu.fi