Round & round & up & down (EN)

Round & round & up & down
22 September 2023 - 17 december 2023

Round & round & up & down is based on Charlott Markus’ experience as an Artist-In-Residence at the psychiatric hospital Zon & Schild (Z&S) in Amersfoort. The recurring themes in this exhibition are confinement, feeling safe and being seen. Markus’ work is often about our perception of the world and ourselves, the layers we don’t always want to see or reveal. 

Markus started out making anonymous portraits, not of the heads but the hands of clients, and ended up making real connections and sharing stories. Together they practiced looking at the world from a slightly different angle. Some of these collected hand portraits are incorporated in the exhibition via print experiments on glass. For this exhibition Markus has also collected original textile curtains from Hebron, a huge, historical, and monumental building at Z&S that has been closed for several years.

Writing became Markus’ outlet during her time at the residency; based on notes taken there she worked on a manuscript, mixing clients' stories with her own experiences and observations. This manuscript formed the basis of an eight-channel audio work that is providing an intimate atmosphere to the exhibition space. The intention is to create an environment that hints at an intersectional view of society and allows us to contemplate our relationship with mental health and the politics surrounding it. In the end, Markus says, it is all about being seen and feeling safe.

ABOUT THE ARTIST
After university studies of both psychology and theology in Sweden, Charlott Markus pursued an art education that took her to Amsterdam via Copenhagen. Markus graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy (2007) and has since been showing work in numerous exhibitions throughout the world. Markus’ practice focuses on the in-between and the emotionally concealed, spaces where hidden structures and practicing actual seeing play a big part. In a theater-like fashion, Markus creates an alternate space with her work where the margins between different mediums become intertwined, always zooming in while examining the whole. With an intersectional view of society, she navigates between the poetic and the confrontational.

ABOUT ZON & SCHILD
This new Artist-In-Residence program means a collaboration between Beautiful Distress and  Zon & Schild (Z&S) the GGZ Centraal in Amersfoort. Z&S opened in the beginning of the 1930s and has been one of the big, monumental psychiatric clinics in the Netherlands, positioned outside the society in a forest. It used to be its own village with its own fire brigade and swimming pool etc. Smaller today but still a big terrain with more than 300 clients living on the premises and with a lot of ambulant clients coming and going every day. At Z&S you find many different forms of care, from geriatric psychiatry with a palliative unit to highly intensive psychiatric care for adults from 18 years old. It is an old institution and still sort of its own village while the expanding city of Amersfoort is coming closer and closer and soon will be part of the grounds itself. 

PROGRAM

Opening
Friday 22 September, from 17.00
Welcome word by Beautiful Distress
Introduction by Ans Zandee / the Zon & Schild residency initiator & coordinator
A performative gesture by Charlott Markus together with artist Helena Sanders.

Film Soiree Samen uit de Schaduw
Sunday 15 October,  16.00 - 18.00
Charlott Markus will select a film that fits the theme of the exhibition. The afternoon is intimate, accessible and there will be room for conversation and drinks. About the film: Why do so many Dutch people struggle with their mental health? And why is there still a taboo on this? Hanna and Juda Verboom - like 1 in 4 Dutch people - have a mental health issue. In 'Together out of the shadows' they go on a journey together with professionals and experts by experience to dive deeper into important topics around mental health. Their biggest discovery: "People need people."

Evening Lecture
Thursday 26 October 19.00 - 21.00 
Zon & Schild ontmoet het publiek: (in Dutch only) 

Reading together
Sunday 19 November, 16:00 - 18.00
An event where we come together to read texts that relate to the themes of the exhibition. Come and share a poem, a self-written or favorite literary piece that relates to feeling seen, feeling safe or any other theme you feel is appropriate to this exhibition. Charlott will also read from her own writings.

Finissage
Sunday 17 December, 15.00 - 18.00
For the festive closing of the exhibition, Nieuw Dakota and Beautiful Distress join forces. We start at 15.00 with the finissage tour of Nieuw Dakota's Yes I do, and continue our way at 16.00 with a tour by Charlott through Round & round & up & down.

> For a Guided Tour by the Artist (e.g. for a school class), please be in touch with Ezra: ezra@beautifuldistress.org

COLOFON

This project is made possible with the generous support of 
Mondriaan fonds 
AFK - Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst
GGZ Centraal 
Beautiful Distress