The mask has proved historically to be a joyful opportunity of role subverting, a ceremonial familiarization with the unknown, an unfolding of cultures, of artistic skills, of hidden or deeply buried aspects of the self. In that sense, the mask has functioned also as a valve of releasing steam, or perhaps a shield of protection. Today, in a time of enclosure, mask is offering itself in the most obvious of ways, as a security factor and a choice of responsibility. Maybe after all sometimes hiding is a way to disclose more. Roger Ballen, an artist who has carefully used the dynamics of mask, has also researched the depths of the unconscious and the possibility of it being expressed. Is it then that the current unexpected occasion looks like an opportunity for someone to be taught by what is hidden and not only what is visible, by the richness of what is different than the security of the sameness, by the need of the unprotected against what seems well safe-guarded? Photo: Roger Ballen, Tommy, Samson and a Mask, 2000 [From the current exhibition "Roger Ballen: Shadows of the mind" at MOMus - Thessaloniki Museum of Photography]