›It ain’t no bad thing to need a safe place to go mad. The problem is that a lot of psychiatric hospitals are more punishment than love… they need some Madlove.‹

Is it possible to go mad in a positive sense? What would be a safe place to do so? And if you could design your own ward, what would it look like? ›Madlove‹ is a long-term project by the artists James Leadbitter and Hannah Hull. Based on their experiences with mental health and the wish to create a location with positive associations for exceptional mental conditions, they have been bringing together people with and without psychological impairments in workshops since 2014 with the aim of building the craziest refuges we can dream of.

Following:

the vacuum cleaner & Hanna Madness
›In Chains‹
Lecture in English

The artists and mental health activists the vacuum cleaner and Hana Madness collaborated for ›In Chains‹ – a film about the radical mental health community KSJ in Indonesia. Many of those living at KSJ have been subjected to a practice of shackling or confinement (known as ‚Pasung‘) because of their disability. The lecture presents excerpts from the film, showing how it works to humanise those who have been denied their humanity.

Both Hana and James have lived experience of madness, no formal training as artists and a shared wish to use art as a means to radical change the perception of both their own and others experiences of madness.