MARCH 29TH, 2022

Manicómio translated into English means asylum. It is the name of a progressive art organisation in Portugal and the name is deliberately provocative. Historically, asylum is the name given to the place where insane inmates were held. It is also the term for protection, notably politically. Put the two together, meet the founder Sandro Resende and the twinkle in his eye tells you that he knows he is devilling. 

The Manicómio Agency is a progressive art organisation that supports artists with mental health issues and allows them to work in an environment that not only protects them, but it also facilitates significant sales of their art. It is both a place and a protection.

In Manicómio, no one has a label. Artists apply by providing a portfolio, and they also have a clinical diagnosis, but once accepted the latter is thrown away.

“I don’t need to know what condition or illness someone has,” says the founder and inspiration behind this collective, “I only need to know their value and their art.”

If Resende had a label it might be that he is dyslexic, formatively so, even in his native Portuguese. Or it might be that he is a self-confessed ‘pain in the ass’. The latter referring to his tenacity in pursuing gallery and commercial opportunities for his artists.

His own career began with a formal college education in art but that led him to work in a psychiatric hospital in Lisbon twenty-two years ago. For Resende, this experience was illuminative.

“I was working in the biggest psychiatrist hospital in Portugal teaching people with different illnesses how to paint. Almost immediately, I gained an understanding that these artists were authentic and honest.”

He also found a willingness in his students to paint and create, and Resende was no longer teaching but guiding.

He brought in big name artists to the hospital settings. People like Jeff Koons, Robert Watson and the collaborative duo Gilbert and George.

“Watching these famous artists side by side with the in-patient artists it was impossible to say who was ill and who was not.”

Resende gravitated towards mediator rather than teacher and began to find representation for his artists in galleries and museums. What began as an informal association which allowed artists to be celebrated without the stigma of mental ill health transitioned into a formal studio in 2019.

“Look around the studio,” says Resende and picks up his laptop. We are having a Zoom call but now I am being walked around the studio/workspace and introduced to artists (one who draws nothing but castles) and then the business people including the studio manager and accountant. I am introduced to them and I wave from my desktop in Ireland. The studio personnel wave back good naturedly. I think they are used to Resende doing impromptu Zoom-bys. We return to his desk and resume our conversation.

“I am a tool for the artists, as are our finance and managers. We help them create.”

Manicómio from MANICÓMIO on Vimeo.

Originally Manicómio had ten artists, and Resende managed to find them retail outlets in galleries and exhibitions around the world. This is his latter label – the pig headedness that does not allow him to take no for an answer. But it is translated into real income. Resende mentions one artist whose monthly income is €6,000. 

“When the door is open and we show the artists as artists – the stigma of mental health is removed.”

Of course, brands now want in. Corporate sponsorship of art has always been a thing. Add in a progressive mental health collective and Manicómio becomes very attractive for providing a solution for all those ESG ticks.

Resende is aware of the attraction but is careful whom he allows in. “There has to be a fit,” he explains. He also set up Manicómio as a for profit company.

“I don’t like the word charity and its connotations. We accept artists here without labels. People work with us because of our worth, not any illness. At first galleries would not accept artists if they were diagnosed with a mental health disease. Now, we are in demand.”

One brand to currently partner with Manicómio is Mercedes. The company sponsors the cost of the studio and houses some of its software staff in the same building.

“Who is a computer nerd, who is an artist with a clinical diagnosis? Can you tell? Can anyone tell?” 

Manicómio also has five designers in the mix to facilitate the demand for brands to co-create whether in terms of exhibitions, books, campaigns.

The artists, now numbering 15, are not all Portuguese: some come from Mexico, Brazil and France and there is a waiting list of 2000 artists to join. Manicómio is providing true inspiration and there are plans to replicate this collective idea to other countries.

During our conversation, Resende returns time and again to the authenticity of the work produced by his artists, whether in sculptors, paintings or word. He had already hosted a number of exhibitions in Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Lisboa (SCML), Portugal’s ancient museum and holy house and also the largest charitable organisation operating in the country.

SCML approached Manicómio to join with them in the launch of Artentik, their foray into NFTs. 

“Of course, we loved the idea. We created three digital NFTs around the persons of the most famous, late psychiatrists in Portugal.”

The first NFT is a collage based on the late Dr Julio de Matos (1856-1922) and who was one of Portugal’s most famous psychiatrists. The collage contains words and images from the artists in Manicómio. 

MONSIEUR MANICÓMIO, THE FIRST ONE

Under the picture of the NFT is written – ‘This is an activist NFT. Activism about mental health, where everybody matters. Where the person is not a disease.’ This limited collection has sold well, five so far priced at €1500, and there are plans for more activist NFTs.

Finally, I come around to Resende himself. Is there also an artist label I can attach?

“I did art in college but not anymore. I look at the work the artists produce here and they are amazing. Their work is authentic and I am very in love with the art. I cannot explain the why, but Manicómio is my art project.” 

It sounds glamorous and sometimes it is. Other times Resende is in charge of constructing the actual exhibition wooden stands from which the art hangs. It is not uncommon to see him with a yard stick in one hand and a hammer in the other, measuring timber to act as both frame and stand. He is beginning another exhibition which has taken nine months to curate. 

“We created immersive art studios in four psychiatric hospitals in the north [of Portugal] and we worked with the mentally ill, some of whom have been hospitalised for more than 30 years. In those nine months I worked with the artists and we found approximately 40 pieces of art.”

Resende doesn’t see it as tedium. His work has been embedded with psychiatric hospitals and he is patient. He also enjoys the physical work of building the exhibition frames. Everything takes time.  

“I like to assemble all the exhibits, it's my therapy.”