Sinestesias Magazine
on the Security Pavilion at Hospital Miguel Bombarda (Lisbon, PT)
on the Security Pavilion at Hospital Miguel Bombarda (Lisbon, PT)
Project: Develop a magazine issue about the Security Pavilion of Hospital Miguel Bombarda.
"Hospital Miguel Bombarda, Portugal’s first psychiatric hospital, was founded in 1848. The hospital is named after Prof. Miguel Bombarda (1851-1910), the hospital’s most distinguished director, and under his leadership (1892-1910) radical changes were made concerning patient care in terms of therapeutics, physical structures and management. The museum of Hospital Miguel Bombarda is called “Pavilhão de Segurança, Enfermaria Museu” (Security Pavilion, Museum Infirmary). It includes several collections of objects and documents and the building is in itself a museum, rather like a museum house. It is not a building where a museum was installed, but, in itself, is the most valuable part of the museum.
The Security Pavilion (1892-1896) was designed to be a forensic prison infirmary for patients from the penitentiary, or other patients considered dangerous, and should not be confused with a typical psychiatric ward from the period. It functioned from 1896 to 2000, when it was closed. A place of huge suffering and pain, that has to be remembered, and, paradoxically, a place of beauty, the building shows an exceptional historic and architectural value, even internationally, declared in 2001 of public interest by IPPAR (Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico). It is highly rational in design, according with Bombarda’s clinical and social thinking: rounded edges on benches and doorways (to prevent injury to patients); circular plan (indicating reason and perfection). It is also an extremely rare panoptic building, a system invented by Jeremy Bentham (surveillance of cells and people from a central tower), nowadays a symbol of privacy violation." in http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/who/panopticon_folder/panopticon_where/Portuguese_Panopticon_info
Many of the Security Pavilion pacients were artists (Art Brut), from painters to writers and dancers.
I created Sinestesias Magazine (synesthesia) to emphasize their vision of the world.
This way, Sinestesias Magazine includes texts, poems and drawings from several patients, an evaluation of a pacient written by Dr. Miguel Bombarda, and excerpts from the book "Knowledge of Hell" (1980) written by the Portuguese novelist and medical doctor António Lobo Antunes, where he shares some of his experiences working on that hospital. It also includes photo series of the Pavilion, recreating pacient's vision from inside the cells and outside the cells (still inside the pavilion), showcasing some of their drawings scraped on the stone pavement and simulating a choreography in a straitjacket.
"Hospital Miguel Bombarda, Portugal’s first psychiatric hospital, was founded in 1848. The hospital is named after Prof. Miguel Bombarda (1851-1910), the hospital’s most distinguished director, and under his leadership (1892-1910) radical changes were made concerning patient care in terms of therapeutics, physical structures and management. The museum of Hospital Miguel Bombarda is called “Pavilhão de Segurança, Enfermaria Museu” (Security Pavilion, Museum Infirmary). It includes several collections of objects and documents and the building is in itself a museum, rather like a museum house. It is not a building where a museum was installed, but, in itself, is the most valuable part of the museum.
The Security Pavilion (1892-1896) was designed to be a forensic prison infirmary for patients from the penitentiary, or other patients considered dangerous, and should not be confused with a typical psychiatric ward from the period. It functioned from 1896 to 2000, when it was closed. A place of huge suffering and pain, that has to be remembered, and, paradoxically, a place of beauty, the building shows an exceptional historic and architectural value, even internationally, declared in 2001 of public interest by IPPAR (Instituto Português do Património Arquitectónico). It is highly rational in design, according with Bombarda’s clinical and social thinking: rounded edges on benches and doorways (to prevent injury to patients); circular plan (indicating reason and perfection). It is also an extremely rare panoptic building, a system invented by Jeremy Bentham (surveillance of cells and people from a central tower), nowadays a symbol of privacy violation." in http://www.ucl.ac.uk/Bentham-Project/who/panopticon_folder/panopticon_where/Portuguese_Panopticon_info
Many of the Security Pavilion pacients were artists (Art Brut), from painters to writers and dancers.
I created Sinestesias Magazine (synesthesia) to emphasize their vision of the world.
This way, Sinestesias Magazine includes texts, poems and drawings from several patients, an evaluation of a pacient written by Dr. Miguel Bombarda, and excerpts from the book "Knowledge of Hell" (1980) written by the Portuguese novelist and medical doctor António Lobo Antunes, where he shares some of his experiences working on that hospital. It also includes photo series of the Pavilion, recreating pacient's vision from inside the cells and outside the cells (still inside the pavilion), showcasing some of their drawings scraped on the stone pavement and simulating a choreography in a straitjacket.
Magazine size: 210x375mm
