Freedom

What is freedom? This question has been persistently accompanying me, while answers are never satisfying, as different individuals see it from different perspectives. 

Are we talking about

socio-political freedom – from an Italian song: “Freedom doesn’t mean to be on a tree, it doesn’t mean to have an opinion, freedom is not a free space, freedom is participation” (G. Gaber) – 

personal freedom – “Freedom cannot be bestowed — it must be achieved” (F.D. Roosevelt) – or

mental freedom? – “No one is free, even the birds are chained to the sky” (B. Dylan).

Hence, do we have more kinds of freedom? Or does freedom manifest in different ways?

What is a free man? 

“Once you’ve tasted freedom, it stays in your heart and no one can take it”.  – Ai Weiwei

Freedom, a state of mind, a “state of heart”. 

This little curated art selection is about freedom, as a state of mind and “heart”, during these times where the violation of it doesn’t only apply to the socio-political aspect but especially involves our bodies and our souls as individual human beings. 

What we experience in “Sarcofago”, by Frenetikvoid, is the pure freedom that can only possibly manifest in the moment in which we are born. The woman’s reconciliation with nature has started. One of her arms got mutilated during the war of humanity and Narcissus still possesses her, as a reminder of a life that was and that is going to change. Mirrored in the water is not anymore the image of herself, she won’t drown, she is safe. What she sees now is the reflection of nature taking over her body and still giving her the chance of one hand, living that ecstasy as a Saint Teresa. She is redeemed, she is free.   

Entering the dimension of Undeadlu, inhabited by cyborgs, we are forced to face our biggest fear: mental freedom. The cables, nourishing, are strengthening us – as a combination of humans and machines – in the run to our destiny. But it’s tight, we can’t move. How sweet, this addiction to “power”. Are we empowered slaves? In “Cyber Freedom”, the cyber-woman can’t get enough of those wires, paralyzed. Is it life-blood or a leash? Being lost in Stockholm Syndrome, suddenly she is present. After the tunnel, white, she comes back. To life, to light. Now able to see her “true colors”. 

We are finally given the chance of living many lives in just one, having access to the magic worlds of Giant Swan. This time, we are inside the deepest human consciousness, where the dual nature of our soul is fighting – like in a tug-of-war – that constant tending towards wisdom or wildness. An owl is sitting inside the head of the man, it has already infiltrated his mind. That same bird that used to sit on Athena’s blind side, so that she could see the whole truth. More owls all around are bringing enlightenment, but the strength of the forest is overwhelming; that instinct of the self to savageness. The rope is tight, it goes left and it comes back right. It stops, it finally stays, in the perfect balance, in the evenness of freedom. In “a forest of owls”. 

So what is freedom?

I still have doubts and it still is a growing process. After all, art doesn’t answer questions, art raises them. 

This selection from the art presented and tokenized on SuperRare is my homage to the platform and its precious contribution to the most contemporary art world. 

Stay free.