From January to May 2016, visual artist Domenico Mangano and art historian Marieke van Rooy were artists in residence at the Instituto Buena Bista (IBB). Their residency will result in an experimental film in which they explore the actuality of the concept of ‘dilution’. Dilution was a radical experiment in the Seventies, which aimed at emancipating people with mental health problems by opening up isolated asylums and having ‘normal’ people live alongside psychiatric patients on the terrain of a psychiatric institution. The artists have translated this concept into an artistic intervention by researching the imaginative world of psychiatric patients at the Capriles clinic, together with the students of the IBB, which is located on the terrain of the psychiatric institution.
Mangano and Van Rooy established a close relationship with patients and students. The wishes and fantasies of both were researched through drawings, conversations, letters and the making of personalised clay objects. The results of this project came together in a ‘rite of dilution’, which took place in the chapel on the terrain of the Capriles clinic at the end of their residency period. Alongside this, the artistic process was presented at the IBB: the soundtrack of the film, drawings by patients, the clay objects, and a series of letters with sketches that the students sent to 25 people in Curacao. In these letters they described their experiences during the project. The recipients of the letters (actors, politicians, school teachers, friends and family etc.) were asked to return these letters during the closing event.
For more information on their residency, see the blog: www.dilutionincuracao.tumblr.com

The project at the IBB is the last part of a trilogy by Mangano and Van Rooy, which explores the heritage of the anti-psychiatry movement in the Kingdom of the Netherlands. The first part of the trilogy, Birds Singing, Sandy Ground (2014), was made during a residency at Kunsthuis SYB, Beetsterzwaag (NL). The second part, Homestead of Dilution (2015), was made during a residency at Het Vijfde Seizoen in Den Dolder (NL).
The trilogy is made possible thanks to the Mondriaan Fund.


Domenico Mangano and Marieke van Rooy have been working together for several years.
 Domenico Mangano (1976, Palermo, Italy) is a visual artist who began living and working in Amsterdam six years ago. In his work he pays attention to micro stories, local communities, and people that live on the margins of society. He uses video, photography and installations. Mangano has participated in several artist-in-residencies and his work has been shown in numerous international exhibitions.
 Marieke van Rooy (1974, Weert, NL) is an art historian. When she is not involved with art, she is engaged in writing her PhD about the relationship between the democratisation movement and the changes in the policy and architecture of social housing in the Seventies at the Technical University of Eindhoven.

For further information, see:
www.dilutionindendolder.tumblr.com
www.domenicomangano.com
Blog about their stay on Curacao