Mental health, art, and deinstitutionalization: an aesthetic-poetic-theatrical account of the city's occupation
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DOI: 10.1590/1413-81232022271.20002021 39
Mental health, art, and deinstitutionalization:
article
an aesthetic-poetic-theatrical account of the city’s occupation
Júlia Monteiro Schenkel (https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6975-7173) 1
Glauber Weder dos Santos Silva (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0570-1944) 2
Ana Karenina de Melo Arraes Amorin (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1343-9341) 3
Francisco Arnoldo Nunes de Miranda (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8648-811X) 4
Jovanka Bittencourt Leite de Carvalho (https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0785-3423) 5
Sara Eloise Argimiro Ribeiro (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0890-3426) 4
Ana Clara Paiva de Almeida (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3969-1868) 4
Maxwell Menezes Silva (https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2380-8742) 6
Abstract This study aimed to report the expe-
rience of an aesthetic, poetic, and theatrical pro-
duction of the city’s occupation from a device of
the Psychosocial Care Network to offer space for
sociability, production, and cultural intervention.
This is an account of an experience from the So-
cial and Cultural Center (CECCO) in Natal, Rio
Grande do Norte, Brazil, within madness and
mental health deinstitutionalization. The inter-
1
Programa de Pós-
Graduação em Psicologia, vention “The Little Prince occupies the Ribeira”
Universidade Federal do was inspired by the work of author Saint-Ex-
Rio Grande do Norte. upéry. The artistic and creative acts reported oc-
Campus Universitário Lagoa
Nova, Caixa Postal 1622. curred in December 2019. We experienced in this
59078-970 Natal RN Brasil. intervention the reach of an aesthetic clinic that,
juliamonteiroschenkel@ when opened to the street and art, expanded and
gmail.com
2
Direção de Enfermagem, weaved in the territory, instrumentalized by the-
Hospital Giselda Trigueiro, ater, dance, poetry, percussion, crafts, and city’s
Secretaria de Saúde Pública occupation. The movement led the community to
do Rio Grande do Norte.
Natal RN Brasil. “step down from the stage” to the streets and is
3
Departamento de connected with the twist of the asylum model and
Psicologia, Universidade the production of the affection clinic that we seek
Federal do Rio Grande do
Norte. Natal RN Brasil. to sustain in the daily service.
4
Departamento de Key words Mental health, Art, Deinstitutional-
Enfermagem, Universidade ization, Popular culture, Cities
Federal do Rio Grande do
Norte. Natal RN Brasil.
5
Escola de Saúde,
Universidade Federal do Rio
Grande do Norte. Natal RN
Brasil.
6
Centro de Convivência e
Cultura de Natal, Secretaria
Municipal de Saúde de
Natal. Natal RN Brasil.40
Schenkel JM et al.
Introductory notes if it is enough in the tangles of their formal net-
works and private spaces of the clinic’s territory.
The experience that we are going to report oc- However, they must expand vis-à-vis the city and
curred from the Social and Cultural Center of culture5.
Natal (CECCO – Natal, RN, Brazil), service of The Psychiatric Reform can be successful in
the municipal health network part of the Psy- the cultural space, as the change in the mental
chosocial Care Network, in partnership with health care model and the fight against prejudice,
the Extension Project “Tons de Vida (Life Tones) stigma, and segregation historically dispensed to
Group: artistic workshops, popular theater, and madness operates in the construction of new so-
mental health in the city from the Social and cial places for the “loony”, in sustaining a social
Cultural Center of Natal (CECCO – Natal, RN, paradigm of leadership and citizenship for users
Brazil)”, the Nursing Department of the Federal and their family members6.
University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), and By ethically positioning ourselves, refusing
supported by the Captaincy of the Arts Cultural the reproduction of exclusionary practices, and
Foundation (FUNCARTE). investing in the creation of strategies for the dein-
Hybrid spaces between health, art, and cul- stitutionalization of madness and the affirmation
ture, the Social and Cultural Centers emerged in of difference in the city, we point to the power of
Brazil as devices that underpin the Psychosocial art in the anti-asylum clinic and its contribution
Care Network (RAPS) to offer spaces for socia- to diversifying the experience of the encounters
bility, cultural production, and intervention in of RAPS users with and in the city7. In this sense,
the city. Strategically, they were thought of as recent experiences have pointed to a detachment
open services and not exclusively aimed at users of art as a strictly therapeutic device and be-
of the RAPS1. Such services have been essential came a strategy for producing life projects and
in health care networks to promote meetings and deinstitutionalization of madness in social life
articulation of care with everyday life and its cre- in a broad sense8. According to Pelbart9, we can
ation processes, aligned with the Psychiatric Re- conceive of art as an essential ingredient in the
form paradigm2. production of health and life for these subjects,
If in the psychiatric reform there is an aspect since madness in its biopolitical force requires
that has made little progress since 2001, the land- the construction of “multifaceted devices that
mark of the enactment of the Paulo Delgado3 are political, aesthetic, and clinical in reinventing
Law, this would be the sociocultural dimension coordinates for the enunciation of life”9 (p. 37).
of deinstitutionalization in shifting the social In this direction, we leave aside the term us-
meanings attributed to madness and difference ers, sometimes trivialized in the Unified Health
to social life. Demystifying this place still marked System, and refer to CECCO attendees as “hang-
by stigma and prejudice linked to notions of in- outers”, thus marking an attempt to shift their re-
capacity and dangerousness, which, for that very lationship with the Center and the team workers.
reason, produces affective territories depotentiat- Thus, the power of laterality is affirmed without
ed and generators of exclusion and psychological neglecting the differences and singularities in
distress, continues to be a task for the Psychoso- roles and responsibilities. We are all hangouters,
cial Care Networks (RAPS). creating together ways of living together and in-
The RAPS devices act as intermediaries be- habiting the city.
tween the subjects and the social world sur- This movement takes place in different ways:
rounding them, which excel in creative initiatives through the participation or organization of fairs
that consider the different ways of existing and to exhibit the crafts produced in the workshops,
living with severe psychological distress, con- events where artistic presentations are held
necting them with the community/city. The ac- (dance, percussion, vocal group, and theater),
tivities developed within the RAPS seek to devel- and the occupation of other spaces that appreci-
op the personal and social dimensions based on ate the art produced by the hangouters and in its
the different needs of users4. dissemination. This is the clinical-political action
We understand, therefore, that mental health that CECCO has been developing in the city of
policies cannot resign themselves to the confines Natal, strengthening the inclusion of hangouters
of their health services in order to face and resist in the city, encouraging the occupation of public
the reproduction of the asylum logic that insists spaces, and taking its artistic and cultural pro-
on the key of exclusion and prejudice, not even duction beyond the service walls.41
Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 27(1):39-48, 2022
The Social and Cultural Center of Natal/RN in August 2019 and, more recently, the aesthet-
and its intersectoriality ic-poetic-theatrical circuit “O Pequeno Príncipe
Ocupa a Ribeira” (The Little Prince Occupies the
Inaugurated in August 2017, CECCO in Na- Ribeira), held in December 2019 – an experience
tal has been consolidating itself in the city as an that we will seek to share through this writing.
essential space for the Psychosocial Care Net- By placing this experience within the field of
work, a place for meetings, reception, and access deinstitutionalization of madness and mental
to artistic and cultural activities, with the target health, we understand that madness and the field
– but not exclusive – audience of RAPS users. of mental health and its policies must be deinsti-
This movement is supported by the articulation tutionalized. That is, it is necessary to create and
of different social actors, which gathers the team sustain a network of territorial care services that
linked to the service and employees from other dispute the place and meanings of madness and
RAPS services, artists in the territory who per- difference in the city and RAPS should establish
form volunteer work, students, and teachers who ways to connect with other knowledge, outside
seek the service as a space for formation. the field of mental health, opening and cross-
Several workshops are offered, including ing the clinic for psychosocial care to operate
dance, percussion, poetry, guitar, handicraft, the replacement, or better, the subversion of the
theater, vocal group, stretching, meditation, and asylum logic. Art and streets are strategic to this
programmed activities that seek to expand the end, producing aesthetic fragments that do not
occupation of spaces and inclusion of hangouters reproduce as roadmaps and are unique and priv-
in the city. Such activities draw a changing rou- ileged moments between health and madness,
tine of daily offerings, which are built according extinguishing art and life and art and non-art11
to the availability of the actors that underpin the boundaries.
community and the hangouters’ desires. Besides What makes an artistic manifestation a po-
the workshops, CECCO is experienced by its at- litical act? What makes a Psychosocial Care ser-
tendees as “a place to make friends” and “discover vice position itself clinically and politically in
skills I didn’t know I had” – expressions they of- the dispute for social places socially attributed
ten use. to madness and difference? Without intending to
The CECCO seeks to establish itself as a space answer these questions, but letting them rever-
of freedom where hangouters can attend as they berate as a background for the experience report
desire and relate to activities uniquely and not as to be shared here, we argue that this transition
a need imposed by a treatment. More than using takes place precisely in the occupation of public
art for the treatment of mental health, we seek to space, shifting from the clinic’s private territory
explore the uselessness of art as a powerful force to the city’s public space: “it is when the block goes
in creating a stylistic feature of existence, which to the street…”.
faces the institutionalization of madness with its If asylum spaces and asylums operate the vio-
diagnostic and psychiatrist (or even psychologiz- lence of pulling people out of their places of exis-
ing) captures10. tence in the name of the watchword of treatment,
Thus, some people go there to carry out activ- deinstitutionalizing involves investing in the rela-
ities, and others do not conduct any workshops, tionships with the different territories of people’s
such as the guest from the streets who sleeps on lives and creating new territories that empower
the sofa, or the one who will water the plants, their lives. In this way, narrating this story, this
feed the cats in the vicinity, or participate in the experience report about this aesthetic interven-
opening circle of activities and then leave, or even tion in the city summons the narrative about the
the one that stays more in the corridors or the territory where this occupation occurred.
games room…. there are multiple types of con-
nection that each guest creates with the service. Territory and the narrative of a collective
In this work context, several cultural offer- construction process
ings were presented to the city over the three
years of CECCO’s existence, such as the theatrical CECCO occupied Ribeira, a historic district
production of Auto de Natal in 2018; the hold- in Natal, where the city began to develop, beside
ing of the First LeiloArte in an art gallery, and the River Potengi. It is a territory of intense commer-
launch of Cordel Poetas Convivas in a traditional cial and port activity, which received the invest-
cultural space in the city, both in the week of cel- ment of a city that wanted to modernize itself in
ebration of the two years of CECCO’s existence the early 20th century. Bars, cafes, luxury outlets,42
Schenkel JM et al.
and cabarets...“A modern, civilized and elegant experiences despite having several artist work-
Natal, who wanted to resemble the Paris of the shops. Undergraduate Nursing students who
Belle Époque”12. were supervised by him also collaborated with
From a privileged location to becoming a the support of the CECCO team. In the collective
place of abandonment and disinvestment by the construction of this process, we realized that it
public power, we have a century of history we can was necessary to expand beyond our capabilities
feel when observing the facades of the countless as health professionals and summon other actors
heritage buildings, which mostly deteriorated directly linked to the performing arts.
over the years. The disinvestment of the Port of With the arrival of a theater director, a work-
Natal, caused by the weakened river transport, er from the Municipal Culture Secretariat, and a
seems to leave the neighborhood ‘in the lurch’, FUNCART employee, our proposal for produc-
an exception for some cultural movements and ing a “play” gained new creative and imagery
spaces that still occupy this territory. This is the contours, and we began to explore the idea of
place that emerged for CECCO as a propitious aesthetic intervention in the city.
place to carry out an action of occupying the city
and deinstitutionalizing madness. After all, the Aesthetic intervention as a
fight against neglect and abandonment is, unfor- deinstitutionalization strategy:
tunately, a known territory for bodies excluded fragments of an urban occupation
by a normalized society.
If the CECCO had occupied a theater in the
The provocation for a cultural encounter city and performed a show (Auto de Natal) in the
previous year, in our experience reported here,
In this same space in the city, based on the the performing arts partner did not assume the
CECCO’s relationship with the Gallery called traditional role of a theater director. However, it
B-612, we received an invitation to participate took us away from the initial idea of producing a
in an event in honor of the work “The Little script, lines, and a play and called us to produce
Prince” of Saint-Exupéry. We activated the Ex- interference in the city’s routine in a cultural cir-
tension Project, which was already developing cuit that went out to the street. Several actions
theater workshops in the service, and thus began were taking shape, and some gained strength and
the meeting of hangouters and the CECCO with body while others did not materialize. It was es-
this classic book that narrates the adventures and sential to look at what would acquire a certain
affections of a boy who dares to transcend his speed and what would or would not make sense
planet. to the hangouters.
The approximation and the tension field with We abandoned the traditional idea of the
the classic work of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry oc- stage. The audience and actors are well separat-
curred through groups of reading and discussion ed and demarcated and started to build an urban
of the book, exhibition of a movie13, production artistic occupation, in which aesthetic effects are
of drawings and poetry. In this collective produc- produced in unexpected and unusual city en-
tion process, we took ownership of this story and counters.
singularized it from the conversations, thoughts, However, since the hangouters wanted to
and reflections that the encounter with the text act, we accepted this desire and produced some
of the Little Prince awakened: “- What if the Little scenes with them (which will be described below
Prince fell in the city of Natal?”; “- What if we in the text). Thus, we were composing our circuit
made a medicalization country?”; “- But why did between theatrical sketches, urban interventions,
the Little Prince leave his planet abandoning the and everything else that CECCO had to express:
rose?”; “- Never abandon what you love”... these dance, percussion, handicrafts, free radio, and
and other questions and other “what ifs (...)” oc- wall painting... An explosion of expressive and
curred in this construction among hangouters. artistic lines took the Ribeira streets, generating
Subsequently, all the service workshops unusual encounters with passers-by and local
turned to this cultural production, involving businesses. We characterize the occupation as
workshops on poetry, crafts, dance, percussion, “urban intervention” from the meaning pro-
transforming the daily life of the service and its posed by Lima11 (p. 13):
hangouters. CECCO’s theater workshop was de- Located at the intersection between art and
veloped by a Nurse implementing the extension politics, urban intervention can be understood as
project mentioned above, affected by other scenic a comprehensive and diversified form of language43
Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 27(1):39-48, 2022
that manifests itself in public spaces, whose main took ownership of the work so much at heart that
characteristic is the use of the city itself and its she entered the room at break time and began to
pre-existing elements as a platform to carry out recite on some day of rehearsals. She memorized
these interventions (...) In this way, urban inter- every line from one of the book scenes. She also
vention is understood as the most different types of experienced herself as a screenwriter and narrat-
interaction with elements that underlie the urban ed/created one of the scenes that took shape as
landscape, which considers the city as a large can- “Planeta das Mulheres Rendeiras” (Planet of the
vas that serves as support, motivation, and even Lacemaking Women).
character for its realization extrapolating the fron- We understand that this space for leader-
tiers of art and political action. ship and creation is, in itself, the foundation of
The street was temporarily shut down, daily the ethics of anti-asylum care that starts to work
traffic was interrupted, and urban flows bifur- when we start to adopt and invest in the capacity
cated. Our group of hangouters mingled with the of creation, in potency! In other words, the inter-
public who followed the Circuit, besides passers- vention is created so that the bodies there affirm
by who randomly came across this event on their their life potency as what a body is capable of in
daily journey in the city and stopped to see “our the relationship with others16.
band passing by”, and some walked with us. Mul- In this context, in the intervention, we expe-
ticolored flowers and stars and flowers produced rienced the scope of an aesthetic-clinical dimen-
from medicine inserts were scattered throughout sion that expands and is weaved in the territory
the circuit, strategically placed in unusual places by opening up to the street and art. This type
so that maybe they could be rescued by someone of clinic goes against the asylum structure, as it
some other time. abandons the exclusive care of symptoms and
The urban occupation intervention carried promotes health broadly, boosting creativity and
out can also be characterized by the so-called the ability to think and act. Based on it, we can
street theater, which consists of the artistic and see the health-disease process as a natural part
scenic productions invading the daily environ- of life, whose vulnerability is not an obstacle but
ment to interfere with routine, causing estrange- the possibility of opening up to people and the
ment and the re-signification of the space the world11.
present population, and the already established In the proposition of this clinic-aesthetics di-
culture. The street invasion allows a different mension, we find ways to resist the psychiatrist
audience to be reached, one that does not seek captures in the encounter with art. When we
or does not have access to the theater and goes adopt the creative power of the hangouters, we
further: it allows this audience to dialogue with witness people shouting “Art resists here!” even
art, become part of the theater, and assign new in overly medicalized bodies. A guest inserted
meanings to what is before them. It is a socio- this phrase in the anti-asylum version inspired by
political manifestation that seeks to generate im- the song O Pulso of Brazilian Rock group Titãs,
pact, sensitize the public, and cause concerns and which we invented in the process of building the
reflections on the theme portrayed. In this way, Circuit and became one of the soundtracks of the
the space and all the participants in this type of aesthetic intervention:
intervention, actors and spectators, are affected Lithium, Haldol, Neuleptil, Schizophrenia /
and transformed by it14-15. OCD, dullness, Depakote, catatonia / Biperiden,
We will present the experience of the Cir- topiramate, agitation, hysteria / Risperidone,
cuit in five acts, among countless that were olanzapine, amplictil, lethargy / And the mind
produced collectively, seeking to revive times of still feels...Art resists here!
experimentation of hangouters as readers (we The stanza synthesizes the resistance to the
had non-readers in the group, and the reading reductionist, psychiatric, and medicalizing logic
occurred collectively with readers lending their that bases the anti-asylum struggle in its ethical
eyes and voices to non-readers), actors, dancers, aesthetic-political guideline. More than that, it is
screenwriters, and even directors. the affirmation that the body is there, lives, sings,
and dances. In short, it creates and expresses
Allocations in the context itself despite the anesthesia that often and his-
of production and creation torically silences the mad, the madness in social
life. The version of the song, written by a RAPS
Dona Flor (fictitious name), one of the worker (CECCO collaborator) and with the final
non-readers, black woman, mother of a guest, line “Art resists here!” inserted by a guest, reveals44
Schenkel JM et al.
that, despite the flight of thought produced by vated before? (Excerpt from the “The Little Prince
the excess of medicines, the mind feels and art Occupies the Ribeira” Circuit Script)
still resists as a pulsating affirmative force of liv- Our script started from where the book
ing in the face of medicalization, the effect of a ended: the return of the Little Prince to aster-
biopolitical regime of control of bodies and life oid B-612 (which in our case was the Gallery),
through diagnoses and prescriptions, which is re- where we present the scene of the reunion be-
produced in the capitalistic social life in a broad tween Little Prince, coming from the most varied
sense9. adventures in infinite space, and his Rose, who
The song was recorded with the hangouters, had been lonely all this time. The Rose was per-
most into the experience of being in a music formed by a guest who lent her body for artistic
studio for the first time. It was presented as a expression through body painting, costumes, and
soundtrack for the aesthetic intervention, setting props. It is withered at first – the guest’s poten-
the tone for our anti-asylum ‘version’ of the clas- tial to use the marks of her life to express a rose’s
sic story of the Little Prince. near-life without the prince causes a stir: a fetal
body, colorless and wordless, blossoms, return-
Act one: The B-612 Art Gallery ing to life with the return of his friend, whom
she hadn’t seen for a long time. We thought of
Rhythmically rocked by the pulse of the well- the traditional hegemonic clinic in its excess of
known Titãs music, we now invite the readers to classificatory descriptions and how this obses-
imagine themselves wandering around Ribeira, sion with saying what it is, diagnosing, ends up
the historic neighborhood of Natal, and coming neglecting the main thing that can happen in an
across an Art Gallery. In the middle of old build- encounter: the power to captivate (affect and be
ings and streets, the B-612 Gallery, named after affected by the other).
Saint-Exupéry’s work, invites you to meet diverse
artistic expressions: painting, sculpture, architec- Act three: the pill seller
ture, highlighting works that refer to the history on the medicalization planet
of Natal. Starting stage of the Circuit “The Little
Prince Occupies the Ribeira”, this Gallery was the Our Little Prince comes across a woman,
first planet, our starting point. On arrival, the dressed head to toe with boxes of medicines,
visitor would find four hangouters welcoming the eyes symmetrically painted with a black stripe,
public, inspired by the planets of Saint-Exupéry: accompanied by four companions, similar-
an astronomer and her spyglass, a businessman ly dressed, carrying trays of small glasses. The
and his briefcase, the queen and her royalty, and group walks through the audience, convincing
the geographer and her maps. Stepping on rugs everyone in a directive and allegorical way: “-
made from boxes of psychotropic drugs, the Take your happiness pill!” To the sound of our
visitor was welcomed and “stamped” with a bar anti-asylum soundtrack mentioned above, the
code. This reception made us see and hear the scene keeps repeating until the Pill Seller offers
experience of life medicalization in each one who the product to the Little Prince, and he is asked
arrived. Thus, in the heart of a historic district of why everyone is taking that pill: “- Gee, these
the city, part of the history of the local madness people are strange. They even use a happiness
could be undone a little and those usually labeled pill!”. The Prince makes fun of it, saying that the
as “crazy” invited them to enter “another planet”, planet of Gallery B-612 is too small for all those
the planet of socialization and culture for all and people and “so much happiness”. He invites us to
each one, and embark on a journey of problema- leave the gallery and occupy the streets of Ribei-
tizing the psychiatrist and medicalizing logic of ra, carried by the percussive procession and the
life. sound of the maracatu. Those present at the Gal-
lery and passersby are guided along the street by
Act two: the meeting of the Little Prince wild birds (a reference to “The Little Prince”) /
and the Rose drumming hangouters towards another artistic,
cultural point of the city, Casa da Ribeira. Before
- Rose, these people are very strange! They don’t the start of the circuit, a group of hangouters had
live without subjects, spend time doing calculations, left marks on posts and abandoned walls with
describing everything in the world, but without re- stencils in the shape of roses and foxes. Along
ally knowing, finding, affecting... Now, how could I this path, during the procession, the curious and
describe, talk about you without having been capti- the participants of the encounter were faced with45
Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 27(1):39-48, 2022
these images and affected by the happiness that murdered and raped. She cries for realizing her
is also possible for crazy people, or even, which impotence in the face of so many losses. In the
is perhaps only possible in the practices of liber- scene, another lacemaker approaches and asks
ation from the attempts at normalization carried why so much sadness. After the explanation, she
out by the biopower. Several flowers were offered offers her help and other women to stitch togeth-
to passersby along the way, who were also im- er the stars in the sky with a “thread of affection”.
pacted with a simple request: “- Draw a rose for The lacemakers then begin to chant: “Hey lace
me!”. woman, hey lace woman, you teach me how to
make lace, I’ll teach you how to fight”, while an-
Act four: drummers, wild birds of emotions other guest plays the melody on his viola/fiddle.
Thus, all the women present are moved by the
When the Little Prince leaves the Gallery scene, and the voices unite and multiply, echoing
(Medicalization Planet) on his way to discover in the streets of Ribeira. The scene ends with de-
new places, at that very moment, he is taken by livering a vase of paper flowers, decorated at the
the new wild birds, our drummers. Just as in the CECCO’s craft workshop, by the artsy women to
text by Saint-Exupéry, in which the birds across the delegate. And the walk continues until the
the planets lead the Little Prince, the percussion Casa da Ribeira.
guided this occupation through the streets of Ri-
beira in our Circuit. The drummers are the hang- What we can think of the experience:
outers who participate in the percussion work- notes for deinstitutionalization work
shop and are always present at many CECCO
events, whose captivating power in cultural and Carrying out the Circuit required efforts
street music is highlighted. Sounds almost for- from the entire team and hangouters and changes
gotten by society gain strength, form, and move- in the daily service. The entire CECCO sched-
ment in the drummers’ hands – maracatu, sam- ule was reorganized so that time and workshops
ba-reggae, maculelê, and coco. In our aesthetic were directed towards intervention: some work-
intervention, this power and vibration became an shops were paused during the implementation
ascendant guide, and, as in Saint-Exupéry’s text, of the project; craft, crochet, and fuxico (hand-
the Little Prince was guided by the birds across made flowers from fabric remnants) workshops
the planets; in our Circuit, percussion guided focused on the production of sets and costumes;
this occupation of Ribeira’s streets. Every beat of we had rehearsals of the performance’s choreog-
a wing pulsating to the beat of the drum, every raphies and music in the dance and percussion
chant of our scream in the streets, every vibra- workshops; the theater workshop started to oc-
tion generated was our landing and our mark on cupy a more extended period of the day for writ-
the planets. Regardless of why the percussion was ing scripts and rehearsals.
there, it was proof that we were alive and gen- Moreover, we often took the project home,
erating emotions. If there were a strength in the where we brought stars and roses from different
screams, there would be much more in the beats. materials, ideas for scenes, and donated clothes
If there were weeping for the fallen stars, there and fabrics. The Circuit occupied everyone’s
would be silence in our hands. Every drummer routine and thoughts. Thus, this entire process
on the street was a bird that transmits and ex- was an intervention on the Center’s routine, as
presses emotion. The experience thus shows that it changed the service’s operations, giving more
everyone, whether crazy or healthy, diagnosed autonomy and freedom to hangouters and staff to
and undiagnosed, can learn, teach, captivate, and create, think, and express themselves.
create together. Thus, the production of this aesthetic in-
tervention in the city brought effects of dein-
Act five: the planet of lacemakers stitutionalization in the service itself, which by
disrupting its daily organization, its “workshop
During the circuit, we are invited to stop in program schedule”, experienced the opening of a
front of the Women’s Police Station. There, a space for something different to be created. From
guest kneeling on the floor, trying to glue stars on this experience, we learned that deinstitutional-
her lace, cries. She looks up at the sky, weeps, and ization does not happen without a certain will-
screams for the stars “that are falling”, the forests ingness to get in touch with chaos, with the re-
that are being burned and destroyed, the women fusal to easily answer the question “What should
and young people, the minorities that are being one do?” set by several hangouters, and rephras-46
Schenkel JM et al.
ing the question as: “– What can we/do we want tion processes and thus ends up ignoring color,
to create?” gender, social class, life territories, placing itself
The movement that the aesthetic interven- in a transcendent and supposedly neutral stance,
tion generated in the collective of “stepping we seek distance to invent an anti-asylum clinic
down from the stage” towards the street connects that, through the strength of groups, socializa-
with the twist of the clinic that we seek to sustain tion, and art, connects with the city floor, build-
in the daily life of CECCO. From an asylum logic, ing a clinic that takes place in the immanence of
which, by separating subjects from their contexts, the hangouters’ territories of existence.
invests in separating the disease from its produc-
Collaborations
JM Schenkel and GWS Silva participated in the
conception, design, scripting, implementation of
the artistic intervention, drafted the experience
report, and approved the version to be published.
AKMA Amorin, FAN Miranda, and JBL Carval-
ho participated in the artistic intervention, col-
laborated with the critical review, and approved
the version to be published. SEA Ribeiro, ACP
Almeida, and MM Silva participated in the de-
sign, scripting, and implementation of the artis-
tic intervention, drafted the experience report,
and approved the version to be published.47
Ciência & Saúde Coletiva, 27(1):39-48, 2022
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Article submitted 31/10/2020
Approved 18/10/2021
Final version submitted 20/10/2021
Chief editors: Romeu Gomes, Antônio Augusto Moura da
Silva
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