The intention of the exhibition is to accurately present and highlight all the context related to Art-Brut. We feel responsible for this decision due to our knowledge of the subject and because we know a lot of artists whose output contains characteristics of this art. Most importantly, they are Bydgoszcz artists, who for the past 20 years made their mark and proved their worth, for example at the National Teofil Ociepka Painting Competition . The area of our work and the care for people with mental health problems and therapy through art have brought so good artistic results. The effects obtained in the hospital, at the Occupational Therapy Workshops on the Stawowa St. „Mega-Art”, and the „City Bath” have resulted in some valuable works. Therefore, we believe that the title „Art-Brut of Bydgoszcz” is the most suitable. There’s growing, obvious interest for Art-Brut in Europe, that’s why we want to emphasise the „promotional” existence of local artists contributing to the culture and art in Bydgoszcz.
Alicja and Aleksander Araszkiewicz.
Exhibition open until July 13th, 2014
The world of man is equally a world of science, logic, thoughtful acts, as it is a world of creative intuition, anxiety, absurdity. Science is the tool of the first, and art — of the other domain of our lives. Just like an image comes to life thanks to lights and shadows, contrasts and values, so the fullness of human life and its understanding are made possible by the most extreme experiences, even at the price of suffering (pathos) as pathological crossing of a certain frontier called mental health. From the strict medical point of view, a mental disorder is a detrimental phenomenon — it often leads to degradation and inhibition of artistic activity; but from the perspective of history, psychological cognition and cultural values, it extends human knowledge by such areas that possibly we would be sorry if they were deleted from the history of mankind.
Antoni Kępiński 1972

Those words of an outstanding Polish psychiatrist are the reason for the presentation of art by people with mental disorders. The works shown at the exhibition allow everyone to understand that people with mental disorders, just like everyone else, look for their own identities, strive for freedom and confidence, expect hope and self-fulfilment. While their choices can often be misunderstood by the people around them, this does not mean that the mentally ill are outsiders, those „others” are next to us with their suffering.
Aleksander Araszkiewicz

Mrs. Alicja Witowska-Araszkiewicz and Mr. Aleksander Araszkiewicz have been for many years supporting and promoting the non-professional art „ART BRUT”, including artists with mental disorders.

Mrs. Alicja Witowska-Araszkiewicz
She’s a woman of passion, wife of a renowned professor of medicine and the mother of three sons. She’s interested in art, literature and sports. By profession, she’s a specialist in advertising and marketing. Together with her husband, she runs the Centre of Health, Development and Culture „City Bath” in the district of Szwederowo in Bydgoszcz. She’s active in the Association for Prevention of Social Exclusion of People with Mental Disorders (MOST), also works with the Occupational Therapy Workshops „mega-Art.” For two terms, she’s been engaged in self-government activities. She’s a Vice-Chair of the District Council, a member of the Committee on Education, Culture, Sport and Social Policies, and a member of the Committee on Regional Development and Agriculture. In the district of Szwederowo, she founded the Social Committee for Revitalisation of this part of the city. Also close to her heart is the revitalisation of the city centre and the old districts of our Region.
Prof. Aleksander Araszkiewicz, MD
He is a psychiatrist and psychotherapist (supervisor), Head of Department and Hospital of Psychiatry at the Ludwik Rydygier Collegium Medicum in Bydgoszcz, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. He is a former President of the Polish Psychiatric Association, former Vice President of the Polish Association of Suicidology, a former member of the Board of the Polish-German Society for Mental Health. He is a member of the Programme Councils of 5 scientific journals, Deputy Editor in Chief of Suicydologia Polska magazine. He is the Provincial Consultant for Psychiatry in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Province. He is the disciplinary officer for the Polish Psychiatric Association. Author and co-author of over 230 publications.

participants:
Ireneusz Bednarczyk, Mikołaj Blachowski, Jarosław Borowski, Michał Garstka, Patryk Gieryna, Małgorzata Lehmann, Piotr Marek, Piotr Matuszek, Sławomir Mianowicz, Piotr Paprocki, Adam Pycior, Sława Radtke, Jacek Szwagrzyk, Marek Urbański, Tomasz Wróbel

Opening of the exhibition: 12.06.2014, 6pm