Work in progress

“The Stories Unheard” is a project about mental health awareness in which I had the opportunity to collaborate with GGzE and which was partially subsidised by Gemeente Eindhoven. This is a social and interactive project with the purpose of helping to raise awareness about mental health, as well as the stereotyping and misunderstandings around it. The concept of the project is to make an installation that holds and shares the stories of many people, all struggling with mental health problems. For the first time, in my work, I use my art to offer other people the opportunity to send a message and shape their words. In "The Stories Unheard" I gather stories by sewing dolls out of white cotton, all looking the same. I give them to people with mental health struggles to decorate and describe how or what they feel. After the dolls are decorated, I receive them back. Some of them come together with a text, a message or description which can be seen and read in the book I am making to document the project. This book has an online version on my website, where I update the process.
With the dolls I collect, I intend to build a human shape installation. There will be a wooden structure built and covered by the textile dolls. This structure is intended to reach up to four meters high. This will be presented in different locations designated to mental health and in as many public spaces as possible.
This project is evolving slowly but successfully. The results are impressive, and I have collected a large number of dolls so far.