La Borda, the bet on the unlocking
Sub.coop
The psychiatric hospital La Borda, located in the centre of Buenos Aires, is the most important of all of Argentina. It is comprised of 14 blocks and 22 houses. The 991 men who live there are for the most part chronic patients, who have lost all contact with the outside world. It is, however, easy to come and go to La Borda: the hospital has no barrier and very few guards. But isolation weighs down on this place where there is a different notion of time.
Several workshops enable patients to have projects of a new life, to have an activity. Art, as they say themselves, is far more therapeutic than medication.
Taking part in one of these workshops at La Borda Artist Front makes you feel dizzy compared to the heavy silence of the hospital corridors. The theme of the photo workshop today is: the opposition between “who you are and who you dreamed of being”.
The radio La Colifata, another workshop, is animated by the patients. It is a therapeutic tool for the ‘Colifatos’, but also for the people outside. Its aim is to treat the patients and society by creating links between the two worlds and by helping mentalities to evolve.
“In my programme, La Foguonéra, we eat dishes from all over the world. But it’s all in our minds. I love talking about food because I remember what Hippocrates said – “Let food be your medicine.” I would like everyone to eat correctly. If on earth, we all ate well there would be less prisons and psychiatric hospitals”, confides Hugo Lopez.
“We have always been mad” , say the ‘Colifatos’.
