Acessibilidade / Reportar erro

The archive as an auratic space of images of insanity

Abstract

In this article we seek to problematize the role of the archivist in the cataloging of creative works produced by the Creativity Atelier at the São Pedro Psychiatric Hospital in Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. Within this undertaking, we deem it possible to conduct an exercise in the dismantling of a territory instituted on an ethical decision sustained by a mode of narration and analysis of creations produced by individuals relegated to the margins of society, namely those who are institutionalized for lengthy periods of time in a psychiatric hospital. In this sense, our intent goes against the grain of hegemonic pathologizing discourses in order to produce other propositions about the mentally ill and their discordant languages. As cartographers of memory and oblivion, the archivists of the Creativity Atelier invest themselves in experimenting with new sensibilities in their encounter with auratic images. As the number of studies grows every day, the archivists affirm the fragmentary nature of memory and the characteristic incompleteness of the continuous consignment to an interminable archive.

Keywords:
archive; memory; insanity; image

Instituto de Psicologia da Universidade de São Paulo Av. Prof. Mello Moraes, 1721 - Bloco A, sala 202, Cidade Universitária Armando de Salles Oliveira, 05508-900 São Paulo SP - Brazil - São Paulo - SP - Brazil
E-mail: revpsico@usp.br