Manicomio

“One day, perhaps soon. One day, I will tear away the anchor that keeps my ship far from the seas.”
(Henri Michaux, The Clown)

Manicomio (Italian) translates as “madhouse” or “lunatic asylum.”

In the late 1970s, Italy faced the gradual dismantling of its psychiatric hospitals. Raymond Depardon photographed several asylums across the peninsula, particularly the final days of San Clemente. It was in this hospital, on a small island in the Venetian lagoon, that he created images which reveal—more powerfully than any scholarly thesis—the ordinary horror of these places. Depardon confronts us with the immense distress of the patients and the profound disarray of those around them.

This subject deeply resonates with the TJ1 team and its artistic director, Patrick Masset. The creation of Manicomio emerged from this reflection: a performance addressing contemporary forms of confinement, at a time when our institutions once again seem to prioritize control over well-being.

Developed through encounters in places marked by constraint—particularly Vivalia Psychiatric Hospital in Bertrix, the Val de Meuse nursing home in Givet (France), the Fedasil Centre in Poelkapelle (West Flanders), and Athanor in Dave—Manicomio, together with its team of circus artists, explores bodies and life paths confronted with imposed rules, norms, and spaces.