What is the real meaning of Liberté Égalité Fraternité?
We live in a mesh of cultures. How do we build true community within extreme diversity? We cannot expect a bland normality for all to homogenize to. We must rather see cultural difference as a benefit to society.
Cultural and religious difference does not negate brotherhood. Our common humanity is the thread that binds. Our true heritage is painful to look at. The movement of people a legacy of economic, political and colonial upheaval. The world is in constant flux.
The table is set. And we are all born into a state of collective baggage. No one is pure and unaffected by the actions of their forefathers. Humanity does not stop where your horizon ends. There is no sovereignty. We are inseparable in our actions.
The imagery of a rearing horse, signifies a powerful animal which has been subjugated by humankind, and has finally broken free. Carrying with it the weight of nationalism and patriotism, memorials and statues of statesmen and war “heroes. Historically, they were the creatures men took to war, to fight and die alongside them with unrelenting loyalty. Inescapably majestic and elegant in their powerful and muscular form, horses have an inherent sense of nobility.
Within this discrepancy between their physical power and their subservience, they become archetypal symbols for notions of human power struggles, war, nationalism and blind loyalty to leadership. By unleashing or freeing these dignified creatures through these images, we understand our own sense of agency, independent from political quests, ultimately expressing potentiality for our own humane power.
