The Podcast of Potatoes: Art, Humor, and Healing at Bohars
Ah, the Bohars psychiatric hospital! You’d think it was just a place for serious recovery, but it turns out it’s a party for the mind! Picture it: a radio set here, a recording studio there, and instruments sprawling out with the kind of enthusiastic chaos usually reserved for a toddler’s birthday party—only with more existential musings.
In February, thirty patients took their inner turmoil and turned it into an artistic creation, “Boum Boum Tourbillon”—a podcast, no less! And who’s behind this musical mischief? None other than Arthur B. Gillette, accompanied by Victor Blanchard, both of whom are like the ultimate mashup of creativity and compassion. They’ve transformed ‘therapy’ into a sound journey that sounds more like a musical holiday than a doctor’s appointment! Although, let’s be honest, a visit to your psychiatrist can feel like a journey on “Planet of Cats”—endearing, confusing, and with just a hint of meowing on the side.
More Than Just a Tune-Up
Now, before you start imagining wild saxophone solos and interpretative dance featuring hospital gowns, this initiative is all about giving patients a voice—not the kind you hear at 3 AM after four shots of espresso but a genuine space to express their innermost chaos through sound. They’ve crafted little fictions, poetic musings, and perhaps a few cheeky comments about life—not dissimilar to what you’d hear in a stand-up gig, let’s be honest.
Maëlle Le Gouëfflec from La Carrière (that’s the Brittany equivalent of a rock star show) has rounded up the troops to make this creative explosion happen within the confines of the hospital—though let’s be fair, it’s likely the first time the phrase “musical hospital” has ever been uttered without a hint of irony!
A Ray of Sunshine in Depression
Meet Marine, 73, and definitely not your average patient! She describes her time at the workshop as “a powerful ray of sunshine in my depression.” A testament to the idea that music can be that warm hug we all need when life feels like a smashed avocado on toast—not quite what we ordered! It’s fascinating how a group of individuals—some facing serious struggles like depression and suicidal tendencies—can come together to create something more uplifting than David Attenborough narrating a nature documentary on puppies.
Oh, and let’s not forget the little red bus that will be touring the regions of France, spilling creativity across borders faster than you can say “artistic invasion”! This French art tour truly affirms that, like a great punchline, creativity knows no bounds—ideally, it also doesn’t have to deal with mental health stigma, am I right?
Bohars: A Treasure Chest of Talent
Arthur and Victor aptly conclude: “Places like the Bohars psychiatric hospital are overflowing with hidden treasures—sensitive souls brimming with artistic potential.” Who knew all it took to unlock that talent was a few microphones and a sense of humor? Dreams of world domination through a podcast might not seem far-fetched anymore, but let’s stick to ‘Boum Boum Tourbillon’ for now, shall we?
Practical: Don’t miss out on the chance to immerse yourself in this innovative sound journey—more information can be found on lacarene.fr and listen freely at audioblog.arteradio.com/blog/215629/boum-boum-tourbillon. Get on board the creative red bus until October 17, 2024—because who doesn’t want to hop on a traveling therapy circus?
A radio set and recording studio, musical instruments and microphones everywhere… the common room of the Agora, at the Bohars psychiatric hospital, near Brest (Finistère), has rarely been so lively. In the space of eight days, last February, around thirty patients took part in an artistic creation that has now become a podcast, the first listeners of which were other patients who came to attend this session. original recording to say the least.
The project is called “Boum Boum Tourbillon”, a ten-episode sound journey led by musician Arthur B. Gillette, from the groups Moriarty, Mick Strauss and Asteréotypie – some of whose members are young autistic people from IME –, and Victor Blanchard, who works in sound recording, notably with the Bonjour Parole association. The duo wanted to help free the speech of those who wanted to take it, and to make little fictions, poetic deliriums or ways of expressing themselves in a framework other than the “pure and hard” medical.
Thus was born this strange journey, including many unusual stagesincluding “Planet of Cats” or “The Great Watermelon-melon Adventure”. Before a stop at “E Ty-Mamm Gozh”, where Breton and memory find their place, then another at the “Coffre-Fort”, where we place these difficult words which “we no longer want” in the daily, to glimpse a clearer horizon. “Humor, ability to improvise, integrate and integrate into our respective worlds, all without judgment. We talk to them as equals, and I think that’s what feels good – especially when we’re faced with great vulnerability,” says Arthur B. Gillette.
Music integrated into the care pathway
This restitution of sound creation workshops was supervised by the cultural structure La Carrière – led by Élisabeth Tortorici-Kermarrec –, the Brest University Hospital, to which the Bohars psychiatric hospital is linked, and the health aid association mental An Avel Vor.
Maëlle Le Gouëfflec, director of La Carrière, the largest contemporary music hall in Brittany, based in Brest, knew “Already good Arthur, who already works with various audiences with disabilities”, as with Asteréotypie, which has been touring theaters and festivals in France and Europe for two years. “He has great ease in this type of program, welcoming the word, testimonies of somewhat damaged lives, all implemented in a very constructive ethical and musical journey in a care journey – important, in our opinion , for patients as well as for caregivers,” she explains.
La Carrière has been working for several years now on workshops and interventions in medico-social environments, but this is the first time that such a project has been carried out within the confines of a psychiatric structure of this magnitude… Even more so with vulnerable audiences, sometimes suffering from suicidal tendencies, anorexia or serious depression.
“It was a powerful ray of sunshine in my depression”
Marine, 73, a chronically depressed patient, was extremely involved in these workshops: “I was depressed and, while relatively few people in my department (gerontology, Editor’s note) didn’t come, I found myself with almost only young people… But Victor and Arthur knew how to accompany us. This week of creativity with them was a powerful ray of sunshine in my depression. And everyone was able to give most of what they had, what they wanted to say… We built together. »
Since these recordings, the “Boum Boum Tourbillon” has materialized in a small red bus born from this complicity, and which now aims to cross the regions of France and all possible borders. On the occasion of mental health information weekshe will make his first stop at the Ateliers des Capucins, in Brest. We will be able to board his helmets freely, until October 17, 2024 inclusive, before he leaves on tour.
And Arthur and Victor conclude: “Structures like the Bohars psychiatric hospital are places where there is an inexhaustible reserve of art. The people there are generally very sensitive and artistic. We have had patients who wrote, played and sang extremely well. They are the safes, after all. »
Practical: More information on lacarene.fr and listen freely on audioblog.arteradio.com/blog/215629/boum-boum-tourbillon ; free listening at the Ateliers des Capucins, in Brest, until Thursday October 17, 2024 inclusive.
