Art@display - reflections on loss and trauma
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Number
92
Assigned to session
0.05 Showroom, 29-09-2023, 13:30 - 14:45Field of research
Trauma-related art
Overview of symposium
Art can represent the impact of trauma, as a means to communicate and empathize with individuals and societies. When affected by loss and trauma, artists can symbolize their experiences and express their emotions, thoughts and feelings through their art. Art can contribute to recovery from trauma.
Five artists will present their works of art. They will illustrate how art can act as a means of communication. Some will share in which way art contributes to recovery from loss and trauma. Several work of arts will be at display. Afterwards, documentaries and short films will be shown.
Authors
No participants found...
Headlines
Mieke De Waal
Summary
Headlines is a monumental installation by Mieke de Waal,
inspired by newspaper photographs of unknown people from all over the world
“I rarely throw away a newspaper without cutting out my 'portrait of the day'. These are photos of unknown people, which fascinate me more than those of politicians or stars. You catch a glimpse of the lives of all kinds of fellow humans. There is also space for positive news more often. The clipping archive which I built over recent years, ultimately became the source for the monumental installation Headlines.
Headlines is composed of dozens of portraits of ordinary people from all over the world. One day their photo appeared in the newspaper. But do your eyes really meet theirs? Do we as newspaper readers connect with the people in such photos? Or do we just glance over them?
The news offers an overwhelming amount of images, often related to gloomy news. I would like to counter this with a 'softer message’, where unknown people from around the world are given face again.
In this artwork, I draw these portraits of unknown people closer. By painting and assembling I reduce the big, overwhelming, and often abstract news to a softer human scale. To me, Headlines is successful when visitors are struck by these unknown people from the newspaper, and have to suppress the urge to touch them.”
To see more: miekedewaal.com
Contact: beeld@miekedewaal.com
Authors
Mieke De Waal
The flight of Samuel – from Eritrea to the Netherlands; a fictional graphic story based on true experiences
Gwen Stok, Mathilde Van Overbeek
Summary
In "the flight of Samuel" we portray the stories of three young people who have fled their home countries. The goal of this project is to foster understanding among young people in the Netherlands for the experiences of other young individuals with a refugee background. ‘The flight of Samuel’ is the first story and describes the situation in Eritrea that leads to why many young people flee the country. Following Samuel’s story, two more illustrated flight stories from a young person from Syria and one from Afghanistan are presented. These stories are based on the many encounters that ARQ staff have had with numerous young people from Eritrea, Syria, Afghanistan, and other countries in recent years. We are impressed by their resilience; at the same time, they occasionally need support. At the anniversary conference, the leporello containing the first part of this flight story will be presented and distributed to interested parties.
At the break out session, the start of this project will be discussed, and how visual material can strongly contribute to conveying a message. This presentation will be supported by shown visuals on a screen, depicting the process of creating the first part of this flight story.
Authors
Gwen Stok
Mathilde Van Overbeek
Dealing with Trauma - The Power of Artistic Expression
Anne De Vilder
Summary
Based on her own experience, Anne de Vilder takes you on a visual journey through the process of trauma processing, in which artistic expression plays an important role. Above all, Anne wants to convey that you can transform trauma into a strength that can help both yourself and others. Her latest work dates from early 2017 to the present. This period has proven to be significant, during which Anne was diagnosed with PTSD due to trauma in her childhood. Since her diagnosis Anne has been documenting her trauma processing journey through drawings, paintings, installations, films, photography, and performances, such as the work she created from images that emerged during her EMDR therapy. For more information: annedevilder.nl.
Authors
Anne De Vilder
Art in Grief
Geerteke Van Lierop
Summary
How can visual art help people to regain grip on their situation after a profound change or loss in life? How can artworks support people in grief?
Writer, coach and actress Geerteke van Lierop lost her partner in the summer of 2016. In her novel A Sea of Glass (Een zee van glas, Ten Have, 2018), a poetic rumination on loss, despair and mortality, she describes the immense grief she felt; how she lost connection with the world. She discovered that encounters with art installations in particular pulled her out of loneliness and offered a growing zest for life. Art installations played an important role in her process of re-attuning to the world and intertwining loss with life in a positive way.
Together with Prof. Dr. Erik Rietveld (RAAAF/University of Amsterdam) she founded the project ‘Art in Grief’. The Art in Grief project includes interviews and lectures about the importance of art in loss and mourning, audio tours of some of the works of RAAAF |Atelier de Lyon, and a short film based on her novel A Sea of Glass, showed after the break-out session.
Authors
Geerteke Van Lierop
PTSD and art therapy – personal experience
Vladlena Sandu
Summary
How can art therapy enable the recovery from PTSD complaints after severe traumatization? Vladlena Sandu illustrates how creating an autobiographical documentary film called 'Holy God,' helped her to start talking. It enabled her to perceive past events from a distance, through the lens of artistic expression. Her work as a filmmaker, and artist focuses on memories of the war in Chechnya and 'Rainbow Cinema' about life after the war. She will share with us how her artistic expression allowed her to work through her trauma’s and find harmony.
Authors
