The highlight of the Maison Rouge‘s new series of shows (until 16 May) is Marco Decorpeliada’s Schizomètres. Marco Decorpelida fits into the sketchy category of ‘outsider art’, art produced outside the parameters of the official art world, often by individuals with mental problems. Decorpelida was not an artist in the traditional sense but was encouraged by his psychiatrist to visit exhibitions and to experiment with making things. During his therapy, Decorpelida became aware of DSM IV – the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. This manual consists of a scale that measures different mental disorders, for example Schizophrenia is 20.0, or obsessive compulsive disorder is 42.0. Decorpelida, already perturbed by this mania for classification, discovered that the codes correspond to product codes in the catalogue of frozen foods supermarket, Picard. If the DSM IV codes are compared with the Picard product codes, autism equals button mushrooms, obsessive compulsive disorder is steamed carrot sticks and fetishist transvestism seems to equate to chopped leeks with cream. There is a delicious absurdity in Decorpelida’s investigations which, as emails between himself and his doctor show, became an obsession. Black and white charts and annotated tape measures are drawn up to try and get to the bottom of this uncanny coincidence, with amusing and aesthetically striking results. A video of an interview with Antoine de Galbert, founder of the Maison Rouge, throws some light on the ambiguities of outsider art and the role of collectors in its promotion to the gallery space.
