Winter Window Exhibition
© Photo Credits: Mercedeh, 2024.
The Freedom Fighter: Surrender without Surrender
Winter Window Exhibition — December 22 to January 5, 2025.
Durational presentation, every day from 4 to 9 PM.
A single dervish turns in the window, seemingly forever...
The dervish embraces death before death, sheds selfhood, and bows to the mystic's immortality. A freedom fighter, too, dies before death. Relinquishing the ego to be subsumed by the vast and nebulous unity of the resistance, forsaking personal desire to dissolve into transparence and dedicate the soul entirely to serving humanity. Their energy seems boundless, multiple, and other-worldly. Their faith unwavering and transcending. A freedom fighter dies before death, and thereby gains immortality in the movement, wherein countless freedom fighters are eternaly born anew to carry on the struggle. Both the immolated Buddhist and the faceless Zapatista surrender to non-existence, the collective, and its symbols, weaving their souls into the existence of all peoples, and patiently reflecting the moral sovereignty of the soul.
The Freedom Fighter: Surrender Without Surrender depicts annihilation of the human mind and body and the mistifying embodiment of the heart's understanding that one is greater than oneself. Humanity is one, turning effortlessly on this planet.
And if no one dies, the cosmic dervish dance persists.
When you enter, will the room be empty?
© Photo Credits: Mercedeh, 2024.
Mercedeh is a multidisciplinary artist working in theatre, film, performance, and visual art. They explore themes of SWANA identity, Islamic subcultures, and radical punk aesthetics. Past works have included a group exhibition with the Michaëlle Jean Foundation and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, where they debuted their short film Daughters of the Believers. Originally hailing from a nomadic tribe of the Silk Road, they are currently creating in Tiotia:ke.