LONDON.- The Directors comprises five short films by artist Marcus Coates, commissioned and produced by Artangel in collaboration with individuals in recovery from lived experience of psychosis. From 4 September to 30 October 2022, the films will be screened at five separate locations in and around the Churchill Gardens Estate in Pimlico, Westminster.

Following extensive one-to-one meetings with Coates, each director chose a location of personal significance in which to film Coates embodying and performing particular aspects of their own experience. During the filming, Coates received instructions from each director leading to a dialogue which remains a key element in each film.

Through The Directors, Coates’ intention is to find ways in which people can relate to the breadth and complexity of psychotic experiences and to help reduce cultural stigma around psychosis and mental health in general.

The films will be screened in five different locations in Pimlico, all within walking distance of the Churchill Gardens Estate.

An accompanying programme of talks will explore The Directors and the growing public discussion around the nation’s mental health. Marcus Coates will be in conversation with the five directors, moderated by Charles Fernyhough; psychiatrist and poet Femi Oyebode and mental health campaigner Fiona Malpass will discuss social inequality, adversity and isolation; and the Feminist Duration Reading Group will read select pages from Catherine Cho’s book Inferno: A Memoir of Motherhood and Madness. A presentation of all five films will be available online for a limited period, allowing audiences unable to attend in person the opportunity to watch the films.

Marcus Coates (b. 1968) lives and works in London. At the core of his work is a desire to devise processes to explore the degrees to which we can understand, know and relate to others. Often performative – using a process of radical empathy as a motivation to create, examine and critique relational tools – he tests actual and perceived boundaries between individuals, within communities, and with other species. The form and purpose of his work continues to develop in consideration to society’s needs which he responds to by working with individuals, communities, institutions, organisations and the general public.

The Directors has been made with the support of a project advisory group, including Dr Isabel Valli, psychiatrist, neuroscientist and visiting lecturer in the department of Psychosis Studies at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College London; Peter Bullimore, who spent ten years as a psychiatric patient; Charles Fernyhough, writer, psychologist and part-time Professor of Psychology at Durham University; Laura E. Fischer, artist, researcher, lecturer and mental health activist; David Harper, Professor of Clinical Psychology at the University of East London; and Jo Loughran, a leader and strategic thinker with more than a decade of involvement with the UK charity sector, including roles at Rethink Mental Illness.