World Mad Pride Day Celebrated By Gallery Cachet In Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

   ONE FLEW WEST: OLD LANDMARKS, NEW TOPOGRAPHIES
   CALL TO ARTISTS - WORLD MADE PRIDE BIENNALE 2008

   DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS:
   MAY 23, 2008

   Local and international artists, both emerging and professional, are invited to participate in an interdisciplinary call for work addressing human rights and psychiatry, and mental health and arts.

   Work must incorporate themes of place, surroundings, or (internal and especially external) location as it is related to mental health. The artwork may consider the following questions:  How is madness tied to physical space?  How do we situate dualities of freedom vs. confinement, separation/participation within evolving landscapes of madness vs. sanity?  Healing vs. healed?  What is the geography of breakdown?  In what environments do we experience wellness?

   Within the Biennale, this year's art exhibition incorporates the theme of Riverview. Opened in 1913, Riverview (also named Essendale) housed a population of 4630 in 1951. It is a controversial site and pivotal subject in the history of the mad movement in British Columbia, and as a subject
   within artists' work, a source of pain, survival, struggle, and healing.

    If work is submitted specifically addressing the subject of Riverview, that work must be experiential, well researched and/or incisively felt and directed.

   SUBMISSION GUIDELINES:

   All artistic mediums will be accepted, including live performance, spoken word, painting, drawing, photography, video, sound, and new, mixed, and interdisciplinary media. Local artists should forward submissions in person, artists outside of Vancouver send as digital documentation (email jpeg files).  Submission form can be downloaded from our website or request by telephone or email to madpride@gachet.org.  
   If work is accepted we will provide shipping costs. Artist exhibition fees are also paid. The submission form requires you include your name, telephone number, email address, return shipping information, a short description of your work, an estimate of its value (for shipping and insurance purposes), and an artist CV (optional). Work will be insured during the exhibition (deductible $1,000).

   OBJECTIVES:

   . Highlighting the global movement advocating for mental health and human rights through sharing and showcasing artistic _expression on these themes.
   . Connecting artists' work that addresses the social determinants of mental health.
   . Challenge stigmas of people living with mental health issues.
   . Providing a forum for discussion and education on these issues.
   . Creating links to the rights of individuals for health and security worldwide.

   TIMELINE:

   Deadline for submissions of artwork May 23.
   Jury meets and selected artists notified May 25-28.
   Distribution of printed Mad Pride Guide May 29.
   Work must be received in Vancouver by June 6.
   Program (panel discussions, performance, readings, and film events) June 6- July 14.
   Closing Celebration & Mad Pride Day July 14, 2008.

   A highlight of this year's Biennale includes our collaboration with SFU's Madness, Citizenship & Social Justice Conference (June 12-15). In conjunction with Cinematheque, we present a public screening and retrospective of the landmark documentary 'Titicut Follies,' on the 40th anniversary of its release (and banning by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts). Its world-renowned director, Frederick Wiseman, will be in attendance. Released in 1967, Titicut Follies is a stark and graphic portrayal of the conditions that existed at the State Prison for the Criminally Insane at Bridgewater, Massachusetts.

   For more information

   Cherise Clarke, World Mad Pride Coordinator,
   Gallery Gachet
   e: madpride@gachet.org | t: 604.687.2468
   88 East Cordova Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada V6A 1K2
   www.gachet.org
   
   
   Don't 4 get to celebrate your Mad Pride!