Let’s Reconnect for Mental Health
The project highlights mental health awareness and emphasises the importance of cultural associations as platforms for inclusivity and change. Through collaborations with specialists, individuals experiencing mental health challenges are interviewed and their stories transformed into artistic expressions by groups of Ateneus. The last edition focused on “Unwanted Loneliness” ' and, in the next, we will look at the topic of “Technology Addictions”.
Let’s Reconnect project boosts the visibility and awareness of mental health through artistic works created by the cultural associations based on the real experiences of people at risk of social exclusion. The project has been coordinated with organisations that specialise in supporting vulnerable groups of people, to contact individuals from different parts of Catalonia at risk of social exclusion and in situations that affect mental health.
Based on an initial conversation, we record their life experience and anything that they would like to tell us about their own stories in relation to addictions. Once completed, we contact an artistic group at a cultural association so that they can transform the person’s story into an artistic expression: theatre, literature, visual art, music, dance, etc., with the active participation of the people themselves and the community in the area: the town/city council, local businesses and schools.
The result is shown at public sessions at which the cultural associations participating in the project can present their artistic creations in the presence of the protagonists of the stories that inspired them. Both at the cultural association’s premises and at the joint exhibition, the presentations will be accompanied by a sign language professional, while the audiovisual pieces will be subtitled to make the performance accessible for everybody.