In the next weeks Pinacoteca Aparat will be exhibiting its collection of national flags, flags of separatism, ethnic territories and insurgent armies. Some of these flags are beloved by the world, others are a social taboo or are disregarded. That's not only a list of honourable mentions with a special meaning for us. They also are a reason to discuss and debate our beliefs and concepts of culture, as well as to defend the idea of culture itself.

But how political is culture? Having the freedom of expression, does that mean that choices each society or individual makes cannot be judged? And then, what are the criteria of taste and choices everybody makes today? Sitting on top of the rich and liberal civilisation we all share in Europe, everybody has the freedom to choose their own formula of moral, aesthetics, different forms of identity; we live in an era where "him" or "her" for the first time becomes "them" and even language norms shift and the society respects this. But following that logic, we asked ourselves: if so, is there a border of all the choices one can make?

Is there such thing as "illegal choice"? For example choices supporting terrorism and totalitarism are considered not acceptable and are illegal. But then, what are the borders of these "illegal choices"? If, for example, nazism is prohibited, then why the russian signs or the palestinian flags, used by hamas supporters, don’t have the same fate?
That's why we feel that we could find the answer of this most complicated question of our times in culture and its symbols: that's the topic of our exhibition. Culture is not evenly spread - some societies have built liberal and humane habitats, a comfortable space where distinct sides co-exist together. But unfortunately not every community or nation has done so. The are also those who have only been focused on reciting satanic verses. There were and still are people and groups of people who make choices not based on any meaning of "culture" - and we all face such examples.
Then, what is that makes a flag honourable or disgraced?

Pinacoteca Aparat. London ‘23-’24