Saying yes to existence is what we can learn — through the paths of Art — from Noemia de Araújo Varela and Nise Magalhães da Silveira

Abstract

Fragments of the history of friendship between two women is the theme of this mixture of essay and article: one an educator, Noemia de Araújo Varela and the other a rebel psychiatrist, Nise Magalhães da Silveira. Both were scholars of the therapeutic and pedagogical nature of Art. Their life stories were marked by the incessant search to build a school and a hospital (psychiatric) without walls, that is, an art education and a psychiatry that says Yes to the existence of differences. We borrow the expression "saying yes to existence" from Margareth Rago, a scholar of Foucauldian thought, in her beautiful essay entitled "Saying yes to existence" (2009), obviously about the thought of the French philosopher Michel Foucault, because we understand that Noemia Varela and Nise da Silveira lived their lives intensely, not hesitating in the face of adversity. To conclude, we present a look at the exhibition Com você meu mundo ficaria completo, in a way as an experience affiliated to the thought of these two great fighters for a more dignified world for all people.