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Sep 8, 2014

A few thoughts | Observing the (not-so) silent summer (from afar)

It baffles me how little we learn from our work, how little we learn from the vulnerability it exposes us to, how closed off and unreceiving we are to the possibilities it opens up (light and dark, positive and negative) when it leaves us and becomes public, when it touches other people in form of critique, praise, motivation, lesson and even failure. The reason we want more people to see and participate in our work, (discussions, exhibits/events, social media pages/posts), is after all a move (or need) to reach out, to become defenseless but still hold its ground, to be part of something, of someone. We are opening it and ourselves to critique, interpretation, understanding and misunderstanding, support from our peers, dismissal or indifference from the bourgeois (pseudo-professional), vulgarity from the clueless - so it can grow, and we can grow with it.

This is not about pointing fingers or naming names and projects, but about the attitude that surrounds them in general. The wrong attitude in giving and receiving, in letting the work express the fragility of our ego (not be shadowed by it), in growth, and most of all in the human right of free speech. It baffles me how little we have learned about free speech. After all, we've chosen a life in creative jurisdictions (arts and humanities), being defensive and verbally abusive to our public will not honor the work, it will smear it. And, please, let's not justify it by mentioning similar acts and works of well-known and respectable others, because if a work it's truly ours, it should be inherently and fundamentally different, because we are different. My daemons are different from yours. My weirdness is different from yours. My life experiences are different from yours. My (ir)rationality, imagination, thought and behavior are definitely different from yours. I speculate (a fancy word for make) my own ideology. If you know better, you might want to too - right after failing to blindly following another's, just for the sake of art or life(style) or death for that matter.

Backbone. Throw me a bone?


If you're not ready to entertain the idea of being vulnerable to the exposure, then keep it to yourself. Why invite others to like or/and participate in your events? There is nothing wrong with keeping your work and yourself to yourself, if you're not ready. (Lonely is nothing to mess with. Not everyone can understand oneself that deeply to pull it off.) At the same time though, don't forget to keep that PR spotlight-loving ego of yours in check. Let's resist the adrenaline of self-promotion in the media if not completely ready to accept free-speech in return. Let's not wound or castrate free speech (don't confuse constructive free speech with rude arrogance and judgmental ignorance). We got enough problems already (insecurity being one of them) that's why we end up with aggressive negativity, character bashing and wasted talent. If you're not ready to receive guests, don't invite them.

Not a smirk.

Let's not pretend to give to the arts, culture, nationalism (and what have you) our all then. A work of something that is not ready to face a glimpse of exposure and absolutely refuses (better word would be fights) to receive free speech (or as I'd like to call it growth) - becomes simply nothingness, a wasted effort, an attempt at (a possible though unwanted) maturity. A 'trick or treat' of how to get away with murder art (& humanities) in Albania. Alleged crimes of this sort are more for 'extra, extra, read all about it' kind of enthusiasts, personally I'd prefer a 'did you hear...?' joke. A laugh is always better. Sadder than the real thing.

* Sporadic thoughts and opinion of a non artist (nartist) and a Chaplin fan. (too many quotes left behind. google at your own risk.)


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