The French think of themselves as the rightful owners of revolt because of the French Revolution, to which everyone seems to grant a sacred status. Rather ironic. Still, it is true that a people who protest are a people who are awake. The real question behind this, in my view, would be: why, after so many years of uprisings, are we still in the same place? What major changes have they brought? I mean positive changes, at the political and social level.
Bread and circuses still play, as they always have, the role of mediators in troubled times. Give the people food and entertainment and they will put up with anything. Even politics is a show.
I think, perhaps naively, that this period of complacency is coming to an end, that the change we long for goes further than mere reforms, that every sphere is concerned, if only because of the climate emergency.
Fashion takes the temperature. And unsurprisingly, it is heating up. The most prolific collections of recent years are violent, apocalyptic, with a ray of sunshine here and there (thank you, Simon), but overall the picture is dark. This is not a value judgment but a very real observation. And in all of this, calls to revolt. Some will say these are just marketing stunts, but following that logic, supply adapts to demand, so something really is waking up, isn't it?
Here you will find iconographic reflections on freedom, spirituality, art, the human condition and democracy. I had the pleasure of interviewing Louis Pisano, whose work deconstructing the spheres of power got him blacklisted by the entire industry, and Arturo Obegero, who has made ecology a central element of his creations.
This publication is my humble attempt to offer something different, for conscious aesthetes and newcomers alike. I hope you will come away from this reading convinced that there is a possible way out of the violence of this world.
