PAULO MENDES

# the truth of the lie

“If you want a happy ending, that depends, of course, on where you stop your story.” (Orson Welles)

What is truth? The matching of what you can affirm with the facts? What facts? Mediated by whom? Art is a way of understanding and relating to reality, and it is inherently political. As a citizen, as a constituent element of a social structure, I must exact an intervention on the reality in which I live. If social control systems have created a dominant consensus that makes it difficult or almost impossible to adopt a critical position, art and creativity in general can be used to trigger critical analysis. Art provides a diagnosis of contemporary society. Artists ask questions, but it is not for them to provide the answers.

History is not linear; there are various histories that develop simultaneously. The classical narrative has exploded into a plurality of micro-narratives — we are faced with a splintered reality, a cadavre exquis of multiple writings. In this fictional reality, this reality of alternative facts, art is potential critical energy that must flow between creator and audience.