Breathe
By Marilú Acosta
On October 10, World Mental Health Day was commemorated . Coincidentally, this week I read "El peligro de estar cuerda" ( March 2022) by Rosa Montero (1951 -, Madrid), it is a multiverse that is an autobiographical novel, data storytelling (science popularization text), life gossip, diagnoses and treatments of writers and readers, it is even a detective story, maybe fiction, maybe real. Reading it is a good start to understanding mental health.
Also this week two JustStopOil.org activists threw two cans of Heinz tomato cream at one of the paintings of Sunflowers (1888, Arles, France) by Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890, The Netherlands). Why would they have chosen to vandalize that particular painting? Because it is one of the most expensive paintings? They don't like the painting? There wasn't that much security? Because Van Gogh fought for the miners? Because he sold a painting during his lifetime? Because of his mental problems? Who knows!
With no definite diagnosis, there is no doubt that Van Gogh had mental problems. In his last months of life, which he spent mainly in a psychiatric hospital, Van Gogh painted, on average, almost one painting every two days and the last weeks more than one painting per day. Rosa Montero wonders: Would Van Gogh have chosen to be less brilliant and not suffer so much? Impossible to know.
The link between genius and madness is to ask ourselves: is every genius mad? Or is every madman a genius? Vincent Van Gogh is a genius painter. He is also a psychiatric patient. A madman. With his brushstrokes and colors he represents the essence of the human being. When we see a painting by him, something inside us moves. We find echo to what we cannot put into words. We all, at some point in our lives, go through difficult moments and we know that we are not alone because art accompanies us.
After vandalizing the work of art, one of those responsible asked: "What is worth more art or life? Is it worth more than food? More than justice?". In my opinion, art is life beyond death and life itself, art is food for many souls and art generates justice when from its gaze it expresses to us what society wants to make invisible. He also comments, while shivering, "there are millions of cold and hungry families who cannot afford the fuel needed to heat a can of soup".
Mental health is also having logic in your thoughts, having a goal and knowing how to create paths to reach them. A healthy mind is one that knows how to reach its goals, knows how to identify the handle of the frying pan to hold in its hand and negotiate what it wants. Just stop oil describes itself as a coalition of groups working together to ensure that the (UK) government commits to ending all new licenses and permits for the exploitation, development and production of fossil fuels in that country. I think that before we do anything, we should ask ourselves whether it serves the purpose of the cause. Will the UK government stop its fossil fuel links over a piece of cloth with colors and tomato on it? Will it make it cheaper to heat a can of soup?
What did they really achieve? Worldwide awareness of the organization and perhaps donations from those who agree with them.
They did not destroy Van Gogh's work because it will continue to touch souls as long as there is a replica or a photo of his works. They did not propose how to dismantle our life built on everything that gas and oil provide. They did not create a green battery that stores solar energy. If Van Gogh lived, he would not even be shocked. He thought of himself as a failure, and was detached from his works, but not from the act of painting; he painted over his paintings for lack of money and access to canvases, not caring that the previous work would be lost.
Soups more, soups less, sadness will last forever, as Van Gogh said on his deathbed. And we are all, in the world, very sad.
@Marilu_Acosta
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