Vrapče Pillows
The exhibition in the Forum gallery in Zagreb in 2015 problematized the stigmatization of people suffering from mental illnesses and disorders
Artistic actions and interventions in public space Vrapče Pillows are the third segment of the Destigmatization project. The entire project, developed in collaboration with patients of the Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital and a collaborative team started in 2010 by artist Andreja Kulunčić and psychotherapist Dubravka Stijačić, deals with the problem of discrimination and prejudice against people suffering from mental illnesses and disorders.
The first and second segments of the project were video installations intended for the gallery space. The video installation De-stigma about people suffering from schizophrenia was created in 2010 on the basis of the artist’s six-month participation in the therapy groups of Professor Stijačić at the Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital. The video installation Within was created in 2012 in cooperation with women who suffer from severe forms of depressive disorders.
The pillows were designed and made in the workshops at the Vrapče Hospital, in cooperation with the design team of Kuna Zlatica and the head of the creative workshops Vlatka Prstačić. Promoting the pillow through a media campaign as part of the project is a public speech on the taboo topic of psychiatric hospitals and psychiatric patients.
Vrapče Pillows, the third segment of the project, is aimed at empowering people with mental illnesses and disorders in such a way that the patients of the hospital themselves are actors in the destigmatization process in the public.
You could participate in the action by “inviting” a pillow and uploading your photos with a pillow in different situations and in various locations on the project’s Facebook page or by buying a pillow from the Association for Psychosocial Assistance and Rehabilitation based in the Vrapče Hospital through a Facebook auction.
Events at the Forum Gallery include a reconstruction of the process of making pillows that are still sewn as part of therapeutic workshops at the Vrapče Psychiatric Hospital, as well as a series of talks that problematize the fragile dividing line between mental health and mental illness.
Visitors to the exhibition were invited to participate in making and buying pillows. The proceeds from the sale are directed to the Association for Psychosocial Assistance and Rehabilitation, which helps patients in the Vrapče Hospital.