“The truth, like light, is blind. The lie, on the contrary, is a beautiful twilight, which values each object.”

lbert Camus, the fall (1956)

 

Innocence, apparently, is a natural attribute of the human being. It follows from it, to some extent, the desire to go into the unknown. If innocence is also the opposite of guilt, it can be discerned that the will to lose ignorance is related to the guilt implicit in the choices that lead to greater awareness - why not eat from the forbidden fruit? The innocent subject is uneasy: in front of him, of his image, there is something that is no longer himself. What you see, more than your reflection in the mirror, is the index of what you want to be. The time has come to abandon the nest, to create wings - to be all wings -, to conquer the world in search of something that is not known for sure what it is or where it is. Thus begins the human adventure as a metaphor for travel: the hero's pilgrimage as a journey of (self) knowledge.

 

If knowledge is what you are looking for, you must not worry about judgment. Launching yourself towards the world, being receptive to the encounters and challenges that the journey will reserve: therein lies the inevitable confrontation with the Other and with oneself. On the hero's journey one reaches the fall, at the entrance to the underworld, in the middle of twilight, after the walk guided by the sunlight. It no longer matters the great deeds, the enlightened conquests, the gestures of courage and kindness, the full heights raised during the flight. When looking at the world from above, it is possible to perceive the vastness of the route traveled. However, the desired completeness can only be achieved in the opposite direction: in the downward movement, inward.

 

The dive stands out. The journey becomes nocturnal, mysterious, delusional. In the fall it is necessary to look to the dark, to the deepest, to be able to see beyond. Disenchantment calls for withdrawal and introspection; but it is also a time of subversion and revolt. This state is the result of the choices made on the journey, the option for the loss of innocence, and not due to the course of events. There is always a choice. Faced with the atmosphere of uncertainty and the collapse of values, the constant existential crisis, more than purification for the sake of supposed salvation, guilt - guilt as the will to know (oneself) must be assumed. In this way, there is no final judgment, but only one that takes place in the here and now, at all times. We are, in short, fallen subjects, continually provoked to reinvent ourselves and the world. As Camus pointed out, "don't lies finally lead to the path of truth?"

 

Ivair Reinaldim

curator