In this imaginative world, a person has gone around town and left clues behind as though it is part of a mystery to solve... As I'm walking through town I'm noticing that the factory has been closed for a very long time, and that the art gallery is very strange in this town...
The peculiar art gallery
Usually an art gallery is meant to be a space where one showcases creativity, beauty, and thought-provoking works, aiming to inspire or challenge perspectives.
But when you walk into the art gallery of this town, it doesn't promote creativity or freedom of thought, but rather it tries to enforce people to have rigid ideas, it discourages innovation in people, and it promotes them to be just like everyone else.
There strangely are a lot of empty walls and whatever works there are hanging on the wall are just meaningless. All of its artworks seem to want to suppress imagination, are all about promoting censorship, they are all sponsored by companies for some reason, and are all about the societal norms that need to be followed.
But who knows it may be the ultimate rebellion that this art gallery is representing as it defies all expectations, and there is a sense of irony in the way it chooses to showcase creativity. Maybe by doing the opposite of what is expected of a traditional art gallery, it actually strangely challenges the ones walking into the gallery and it may be the ultimate critique on the role of art in society.
The factory had been closed...
The town seems to also be incredibly modern, as it seems to have evolved beyond an industry-based economy towards a more service-based society. So on second thought, the art gallery may be more like a museum of what came before... When talking to a town member, the man told me that they have decided to prioritize nature and community instead of industrial growth in this town's policy.
He also told me that in the past there had been a lot of unemployment in the town and the town had been in a severe economic decline. Afterwards though the air became cleaner in the town, birds returned,... These days they also didn't need a factory anymore because in this town everything got automated so nobody had to work anymore. But strangely enough, this caused people to move away from the town towards other towns where there actually was work.
People had gotten demotivated in this town, and quite frankly very lazy. Nobody had any ambition anymore, nothing to strive for. The city council was now thinking about how they could repurpose the town into something more innovative. Could this maybe pose the potential for the purpose of a town to become something new entirely? Could the concept of a town be completely reinvented maybe? As you can see this is a very unsual town full of really innovate thinkers...
There were clues throughout town
The man also told me that they had no idea what the mysterious symbols were that were spread around town. Were they meant to inspire them? To warn them? Or were they meant to challenge people's way of thinking maybe? It seemed to be like the clues that had been left behind all throughout town were like a puzzle for them to solve...
In the park there layed a bottle (peculiar because there was no pollution in this town anymore) and half a sun.
Was the bottle in the park a wink to when the town still had a running factory? And was the sun trying to bring back hope that the past could be renewed? Was it a symbol of the balance between nature and economy that the town had lost?
Next to the art gallery there layed a drawing of a winding road, a present upside down, as well as a basket of apples also upside down...
The road, the upside-down gift, and the basket of apples could be as symbol that the town had lost its path and was wasting its current potential. Or was it a clue left behind on how the town could move forward again, that there were hidden gifts and hidden resources in the town that could be brought back to life?
Was the one who had left behind these clues maybe telling the super innovative members of this town that they had lost their ambition and that it was time to start using their creativity and their currently unused gifts again?
In the park there layed a miniature sailboat pointed away from the park, and a carton board with a forbidden sign of an ice cube on it (it had been crossed out with red markers)...
The sailboat and the crossed-out ice cube could be a symbol that there was so much freedom that the members now had and so much potential for an adventure to be had... It was time to start really using their innovative ways of thinking again. Yes, nowadays the town was all about automation and nature was really thriving, but the town had lost its sense of direction together with its members. It was like a sailboat with no wind in its sails...
And next to the pharmacy there was an upside down chicken and a cartboard symbol of a man laying on the floor.
The person lying down and the chicken upside down could be a symbolic way for the one who had left the clue behind to say to the town members that apathy had taken over this town and that it was just absurd the state in which the town now found itself in. It was time to get back to traditional rural living again. Maybe open some farms again... Did all this really lead to progress or did it just lead to a new kind of stagnation?
Final thoughts
Walking through this imaginative town with its very strange art gallery, closed down factory, and peculair clues left all around town, can make us think about how every decision we make - whether this is personal or collective - shapes the world we live in. Maybe the clues were tyring to make us think about our own roles in reshaping the future...
Who knows maybe it was a vision of the future, a warning that foresaw the world's economic decline before it happened and this is a message to those who could help bring the economy back to life? Or maybe these are clues left behind from the future so we start thinking about the decisions we are making today that would have led to this imaginative future so we can reinvent it...