MOSAICS

Since 1999, Sylvie Groschatau offers art therapy sessions to the clients of the Valkenberg Mental Hospital of Cape Town, South Africa, in partnership with the hospital’s Ergotherapy Department and the Friends of Valkenberg Trust. Patients produce clay tiles – a natural element that is both soothing and easy to handle. This basic material goes through transformations, much like the healing process itself.

Thus, the patients decorate their tiles with glass. Once fired, the glass forms a glaze. The patients take some of the tiles home with them; others are used in mosaic murals in the hospital’s various services.

This therapeutic activity channels individual creativity, alleviates anxiety and builds up a sense of personal dignity in a non-competitive setting.

The mosaics are part and parcel of the therapeutic process. They are valued by the patients, as they leave traces of beauty in remembrance of their stay. The Wall of Hands is the Wall of Fame! The trees grow and produce fruit.

Authorization to install the mosaics was given in 2004 by Dr Eick, the hospital’s Senior Medical Superintendant with the following written comment : “Wonderful work! Please go ahead!”

 Art therapy helps in making the hospital stay a valuable experience, one that allows for clearer thinking, a refining and redirecting of emotions, a path to a new level of personal dignity, and a way to envision new openings for the future.

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"Dessine moi un oiseau" (Draw me a bird) - Mosaic workshops facilitated by Sylvie Groschateau in 2005 with the children from the French School François le Vaillant in Cape Town, South Africa. 

École française du Cap ▴

The sixteen five-year olds of the kindergarten class made the mosaic tiles and created a bird, inspired by the work of François le Vaillant, French explorer and ornithologist who came to South Africa in the eighteenth century and after whom the school is named. The mosaic has now become the school’s symbol.

www.ecolefrancaiseducap.co.za/fr