2500 km on Horseback - For Mental Health

- For and with Siu -


My name is Kiki, a rider, documentary filmmaker and fundraiser from Amsterdam. Last year, I lost the most important person in my life: my dearest and only sister. Without going into further detail, I can merely state that this harsh world only tolerates harsh people. For this reason, I have embarked on a 2500km ride - on horseback - to raise money for mental health organisations: from Northern Italy to Finisterra, Spain.

-More about our background story can be found below.

I am riding together with Louis Hall, a Scottish actor and fundraiser, whom previously raised £45,000 for The Cystic Fibrosis Trust by riding from the north of Scotland to the furthest coast of Cornwall. This path, and this ride on horseback, was often referred to in the press as 'The Big Hoof': this is where the charity The Big Hoof started. Together, Louis and I are trying our very best to fight for the betterment of mental health and raise as much money as possible to support organisations already fighting for this important cause.

-More info about the trip can be
 found below.

Although Louis and I are both riding for mental health, we are supporting different organisations. I am raising money for Museum of the Mind  | Outsider art. 
Museum of the Mind is an organisation that investigates and celebrates the wonder and versatility of the mind. Through their interactive exhibitions, education programs and renowned collection of Outsider Art , they invite you to question what is normal, who is normal, or if there is any such thing as normal at all.  Museum of the Mind has been awarded European Museum of the Year 2022.

-More info on Museum of the Mind and Outsider Art can be found below.

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Background

After months of indescribable grief, a project had come my way. For the first time since that dark summer month of last year, a modest ray of hope emerged: a 2500 km ride on horseback to raise money for organisations striving to improve mental health. However, I’m not just doing this for my personal grieving process: Mental health problems are taboo in many cultures, even in ''free-spirited'' Amsterdam where we are from. The stigma surrounding it can be suffocating and extremely harmful. I would like to spread the idea that psychologically vulnerable people should not be merely considered "ill". Of course, mental divergence can make life very difficult in this restrictive world but it also makes the most gifted and sensitive riders, writers, mathematicians, poets, artists: my sister, an extraordinary mind-expanding artist, was a third-year student at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, she lived for the arts.


During this trip I fight against the dehumanisation and exclusion of people, and fight for the embracement and celebration of mental versality. A cause my sister fought for, and a fight that I will continue together with her.

The Trip

So far, we have traveled from Giovo Ligure (Italy) to San Sebastian (Spain), walking and riding for over 1500 kilometres. For this special trip I’m riding a lovely thoroughbred Arabian horse, Istia, from Italy. It is also important to mention that a professional film crew is documenting this trip: the project is being made into a documentary and is expected to be distributed internationally. During these months also draw attention to this project through various social media channels, as we try to keep everyone up to date and raise awareness for our cause – Follow every step of the way through The Big Hoof  on Instagram, Facebook, and through the website: www.thebighoof.com . 

The cause - Museum of the Mind I Outsider Art


Museum of the Mind is an organisation that investigates and celebrates the wonder and versatility of the mind. Through their interactive exhibitions, education programs and renowned collection of Outsider Art, they invite you to question what is normal, who is normal, or if there is any such thing as normal at all. Outsider Art is a term do describe art that has a innate, intuitive quality. Often defiant of conventional art education, it celebrates pure and authentic creative impulses. It is sometimes considered as art by the marginalised, the unexpected artist who refused, or was not given the opportunity, to succeed through conventional paths.

Furthermore, Museum of the Mind creates unique (art-)educational programs  such as Word Up : as the mental health of young people is under great pressure, complaints about anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts have exploded. Many struggle deeply to phrase how they are really doing, especially when feeling depressed or having suicidal thoughts. Word up is a innovative art education program in which creative professionals, such as spoken word artists or illustrators, give young people new tools to talk about deeper or darker feelings and negative thoughts. As soon as inspiration has been gained in the museum, students create their own Word Up exhibition at school and in the online exhibition space of Museum van de Geest. In this way, Word Up stimulates pupils to channel complex feelings or thoughts and paves a way to normalise or even celebrate mental versality.

What is Outsider Art?

Outsider art is used to describe art that has a intuitive quality, often produced by people who have not trained as artists or worked within the conventional structures of art production. The art of children, psychiatric patients and prisoners who create art without the conventional structures of art training and art production is often categorised as outsider art. In 1964 the French artist Jean Dubuffet started to collect artworks he considered to be free from societal constraints. This was termed art brut (raw art) – another term for outsider art – and in 1948 he founded the Compagnie de L’Art Brut with André Breton.

Dubuffet characterized art brut as follows:

"Those works created from solitude and from pure and authentic creative impulses – where the worries of competition, acclaim and social promotion do not interfere – are, because of these very facts, more precious than the productions of conventional professionals. After a certain familiarity with these flourishings of an exalted feverishness, lived so fully and so intensely by their authors, we cannot avoid the feeling that in relation to these works, cultural art in its entirety appears to be the game of a futile society, a fallacious parade." 
— Jean Dubuffet. 

Dubuffet argued that 'culture', that is mainstream culture, managed to assimilate every new development in art, and by doing so took away whatever power it might have had. The result was to asphyxiate genuine expression. Art brut was his solution to this problem – only art brut was immune to the influences of culture, immune to being absorbed and assimilated, because the artists themselves were not willing or able to be assimilated.


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Our aim is to raise 15.000 euros, from which 5.000 euros is reserved to fund this trip. We fight against the dehumanisation and exclusion of people, and fight for the embracement and celebration of mental versality. A cause my sister fought for, and a fight that I will continue together with her.  I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart for all the love and support we have already received. Please fight with us!