These artists enjoy a sublime privilege and respond to no doctrine other than the urgent need to alleviate mental turmoil. Unlike official art, which requires the viewer to decode the artistic product, penetrating the personal universes of Art Brut would mean profaning a necessary intimacy. In any case, why decipher texts that always stir the viscera from their very encryption? It's not because of the grotesqueness, bizarreness, or drama of the expression, but because the aesthetic impulse smacks too much of the delirium and obsession of those who suffer from it.

Approaching art like this requires a great deal of respect, and those of us who consider ourselves harmless spectators must take on even more responsibility, especially when the creator is unaware of the connotations of their work. If we choose to delve into that intimate space, even without bothering the artists or invading their comfort zones, we run the risk of feeling ordinary.

Yenisel Osuna Morales, curator and art historian