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]

How much does human freedom weigh? Have you ever thought about it? How about today, that you are advised to stay at home? And yet it is a timeless question, which may have a different answer to every condition, whether extraordinary or not, "normal" or not, individual or collective. Alexander Plomaritis in his work, with the participation of detainees-trainees of the 3rd Second Chance School of Diavata, literally weighs the Polaroid photos that they are all put together in a performance for the camera and gives us a response with the title of his work: Alexander Plomaritis, “49 g”, 2020, scale, Polaroid photos. [From the current exhibition "Honorable Outlaws - Face. Freedom. Silence" at MOMus -Experimental Center for the Arts]