ONE THOUSAND PATIENTS LIVE TOGETHER ON 200 HECTARES OF LAND. YOUNG AND OLD ARE MIXED TOGETHER WITHOUT CRITERIA SHARING BARRACKS WITH NO PRIVACY AND LITTLE DIGNITY. THE PLACE IS AN ASYLUM, A PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTION, DIVIDED INTO TWO COLONIES NAMED COLONIA ETCHEPARE AND COLONIA SANTIN ROSSI, LOCATED TWO HOURS AWAY FROM MONTEVIDEO, THE CAPITAL OF URUGUAY.
Uruguay, a free modern democratic society, has a population made up mainly of descendents of European immigrants, and it was considered for many years the Switzerland of South America. Some call the place the “Isla de los Locos”(the Island of the Mad). Located in the interior of the country, it is remote enough to be forgotten. It can be left alone in the hope that if no attention is paid, the problem will resolve itself. Each one of the people living in the “Colonias” have their own story that left them there, alone, far away from the ones that once loved and cared for them. Why they….? Did they jump the thin line between normalcy and madness; between crisis and pure out of control hysteria? Or was it their poverty that pushed them into this place, abandoned by their own family and society. A society that in most cases never gave them a chance to enter. So far they have been “forgotten”, and therefore they have never been a point on anyone’s agenda. However, one day we will have to assume responsibility and take action, giving back these people’s dignity and all rights they have lost or never had.
Through photography and their art expressions we have tried to build a bridge between the institutions, the patients, and our society. The objective is to show this mostly unknown or ignored reality with the aim to open up a dialogue and create an active participation of the people.
Achievements
From September 5. to September 14. 2008 an art installation was shown in the Cabildo of Montevideo about the lives of 1000 patients living inside the asylums, Colonia Etchepare and Santin Carlos Rossi.
The exhibition mixed photography and an audiovisual with the oeuvre of different beforehand unknown artists of the mental institutions. During the inauguration a large group of the patients were present. Their art can be seen and bought at www.limites.org.uy
During less than two weeks the exhibition was experienced by thousands of visitors , opening up a world for many people unknown.
A website was incorporated into the Project, www.limites.org.uy, to form in Interactive platform, building a bridge between the world in and outsider of the mental institutions.
During the exhibition postcards were given to the visitors that allowed them to write a card to the persons living inside the asylums. The people very seldom receive something personal for them. The postcards were given to the patients for Christmas.
During the exhibition a son was reunited with his mother who has been living for many years inside the institution and who he hadn’t seen for many years.
The Money raised with the exhibition was used to buy thermo tanks in order to keep the food warm inside the Colonias.
During the month of January 2009 an exhibition was held by one of the most well known galleries in Punta del Este showing and selling the paintings of more than 20 artists of the Colonia Etchepare.
In 2009 the book “Otro Arte en Uruguay” by Pablo Thiago Rocca was launched revealing different artists in Uruguay who have been outsiders of the traditional “art circuit”. A great amount of artists of the Colonia Echepare have been valued in the book and received a place in the art scene.
