The T.E.S. project aimed to build on the projects carried out in France and Belgium by each of the two partners to conduct a critical observation of the artistic approaches developed in healthcare settings, to understand their driving forces, and to outline their contours, conditions, and effects, taking into account the expertise of each of the actors involved. The challenge was, on the one hand, to strengthen our own skills through this exchange and, on the other hand, to produce a series of videos that illustrate these practices and their effects and provide tools for those who wish to engage in this type of artistic intervention or are already involved in it. The concurrent objective was to widely disseminate the knowledge and resources produced in order to contribute to the development of unique alliances between artistic teams and healthcare institutions for the better inclusion of vulnerable people.
Mental health is a major challenge for Europe, impacting quality of life, economic productivity, and social cohesion. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 1 in 6 people in the European Union suffer from mental health problems at some point in their lives. These statistics highlight the urgent need to address mental health in an innovative and inclusive way. This is the path that Le Facteur indépendant and Théâtre & Réconciliation have been following for many years, each developing their own approach to art in healthcare settings. Although this type of experience is becoming more common in many medical and social institutions across Europe, the lack of systematic measurement of the impacts and expectations of the various stakeholders (artists, patients, caregivers, institutional managers) limits our understanding of their real effectiveness and their potential for replication in our European societies. With the T.E.S. project, we wanted to fill this gap by engaging in transnational cooperation aimed at shedding light on the impact of artistic practice on mental health and thus promoting its development.