Avant-garde or Die

Avant-garde or Die arises from the necessity to represent body dysmorphic disorder, a condition invisible for decades, extremely relevant today. The painting depicts a female face from which a serpent emerges, which is not evil in the moral sense of the term, but the distorted voice of the mind, which deceives the body that hosts it. The self reflected in the mirror is not reality, but an illusion so convincing that it becomes a prison. It is in this condition that perception replaces truth, and identity shatters between what one is and what one believes one is. The choice of the title "Avant-garde or Die" thus reflects the irresolvable tension in which those who inhabit this disorder live: either break the mold, or succumb. The work offers no consolation, nor solution. It offers testimony.

N/A