In 2018, the healthcare staff of a public mental health establishment (EPSM) requested an artwork to mark the opening of a consultation space for children and adolescents, located at the heart of the Lommelet site.
The Public Mental Health Establishment (EPSM) of the Lille metropolitan area provides care for people living with mental health difficulties across Lille, Roubaix, Villeneuve-d’Ascq and the surrounding communities. Its work is structured around three missions: to help patients rediscover the freedom to express themselves, to learn, and to take part in civic life; to create spaces of reflection for the institution’s professional community; and to shift the way society views mental suffering.
In this spirit, attention has been given to the landscaped grounds of the EPSM’s historic headquarters and administrative site, set within a 21-hectare park. As the EPSM is a former asylum, the commissioners were keen to offer younger visitors arriving on site a way to demystify mental health. They also sought to better define the idea of the site’s “openness” and the creation of possible “shared spaces” for the benefit of all.
Nathalie Brevet and Hugues Rochette created a work entitled Lenticels, referencing the markings that cover a tree’s bark — vital organs that allow it to breathe and absorb surrounding water. The piece is designed as a living space, a place to breathe, retreat, and find protection within the park. Elements of wood, glass, slate, vegetation, and light are arranged both on the ground and throughout the space, reflecting the form of the lenticels.
Drawing on Didier Anzieu’s ‘skin-ego’ theory, the skin, by linking inner and outer worlds, plays a key role in shaping one’s sense of being and identity when supported by a sturdy, protective body.
This work was created as part of a Public Art Commission with the Ministry of Culture (DRAC Hauts-de-France). The brief was written according to the protocol of the New Patrons initiative with the mediation of artconnexion.
