Opening viewing Saturday 9th March, 18h-20h
Exhibition Sunday 10th March - Sunday 17th March, 15h-18h
In March, Association Gare-Expo is organising, at the Centre Ulysse, an exhibition (Art and Therapy) together with two other activities reflecting collaboration between Ghislaine Coustal (author of Blue, the migrant cat), therapists, and 24 children living in a residential care home in St Pons de Thomières. The book is published for the benefit of St Pons Œuvres Sociales.
We will exhibit 10 children's paintings as well as 5 works by Mélanie Delette, the coordinator of the project and an artist. During art therapy workshops, the children chose scenes they wanted to illustrate; and they have thus appropriated the story according to their sensibilities and imaginations.
There will also be 5 photographs of art therapeutic work facilitated by Ghislaine Coustal in ex-Yugoslavian refugee camps during 1993.
Sunday, March 10 at 4 pm lasting aproximately 45 minutes
We will organise a theatrical performance of Bleu, the migrant cat. A philosophical tale for all ages. With Ghislaine Coustal, Alain Hoareau, Diane Werneburg and her daughter Linda. We will follow the adventures of the cat and its companion through the alleys of Olargues helped by fauna from the Caroux.
Nowadays 'Art-Therapy' involves artistic practices that may support anyone, of any age, in difficulty or not.
Sunday, March 17 at 4 pm
A lecture by experienced staff from Mon Oustal in St Pons de Thomières and Béziers hospital will help us understand the potential of Modern Art Therapy: 'An art workshop experience -Therapy in residential care for children’.
Click on the names below to find out more.
Author of "Blue the Migrant Cat"
Born in 1949 in Toulouse
Self-educated
The path, this never-straight line that binds or unbinds people, gives meaning to the life of the self and others. A line which, since birth, weaves our destiny with happiness and mistreatment. For some this will be undramatic, for others it will be a life focused on the eternal struggle to sustain self-esteem, to regain confidence when the injury is too deep. A self-esteem the practice of art could restore.
In the sanatorium where I spent four years, a young child condemned by a generalised tuberculosis , I fell in love with words ... Words that I swallowed and tortured to exalt my spirit and thus escape the world of syringes and smiling veils leaning over my sick bed. Blessed the library of ten thousand books put at my disposal which opened all the doors of freedom, including underworlds of forbidden books.
When I left the place, alive, so alive, a nurse slipped in my hand the image of a landscape where water trickled between the weeds: " your smile is a smile of joy, your word is a word of joy, your gesture is a gesture of joy: we miss so much in the world ... (The Lizard).” And handwritten: "Let these words be your rule of conduct during your passage among us."
This became the rule of a lifetime - professionally developing cultural and social activities for local authorities and also for humanitarian projects in Romania and in Yugoslavian refugee camps during the 1991-2001 war. Music, art, dance, theatre - owing to the artists who accompanied me - were the mediators of these adventures.
Retired, I thought to unpack my bags in favour of the pleasure of writing. I started with a tale for my grandson Gabriel. And now the words of Bleu le chat migrant converse with images created by children echoing their own personal stories.
It is up to you to converse with these words and these illustrations.
Contact Details:
Brassac, 34220 St Pons de Thomières
Tél: 04 30 40 58 75
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