Locura, arte y cambio de siglo: el caso del Teatro Grez y sus murales, Santiago de Chile (1897-1910)

Abstract

The following article explores the connections between madness, art and the Chilean society at the end of the 19th century and begining of the 20th, from the analysis of the construction of the Teatro Grez within the Psychiatric Hospital of Santiago. The origin of the building and the first activities carried out inside the institution were related to the professionalization of Chilean psychiatry which, enriched with European ideas, incorporates work, leisure and art as medical treatments. The theatre’s paintings are an expression of the “modern” ideas that circulated in medicine and art, but at the same time, they show the remainings of an hegemonic discourse, which continued putting madness in a border line, frequently related to a female imaginary.

Keywords

• madness
• art
• theater
• Psychiatric Hospital
• mural paintings.