Francesc Tosquelles
By Charlotte Stace
The CCCB invites you to its exhibition Francesc Tosquelles: Like a Sewing Machine in a Wheat Field.
The exhibition takes a look at the avant-garde practices that the Catalan psychiatrist Francesc Tosquelles carried out in the therapeutic, political and cultural field. Tosquelles transformed psychiatric institutions during the Republic and in fascist Europe. Today, he is an inspiration when addressing mental health policies in times of extreme crisis.It highlights the figure, the work, and the political and artistic environment of a psychiatrist who revolutionised the medical practices of his time and passed on an innovative and surprising cultural legacy that is unknown to most.
Francesc Tosquelles set out to address the social root of mental illness and transform the psychiatric institution.The exhibition takes visitors chronologically through the life and work of Tosquelles. His oral testimony accompanies visitors as he talks about the topics that interested him: the peasantry, Stalin, the fear that madmen arouse in psychiatrists, and many others.