The belief and trust in science, knowledge, traditions, religion (the list goes on) has been worn away and replaced by absurd ideas, pseudo-scientific hypotheses, organically evolving conspiracy theories, pseudo-leaders, virtual space theories, cyber communities etc. We are living in an era of myths and beliefs once again, but now in a postmodern context, reborn along the lines of an “incredulity toward metanarratives”[1]. Our new myths are made up of the mainstream: money, beauty, superstars, the tech industry, Elon Musk, the Metaverse, metropolises such as Berlin; all these have their own myths. Each has its own overarching system of symbols, quasi-ritualistic collective readings, real and unreal sceneries. What are the collective and individual variations of our individual myths? Individuals mythologize, forming a proprietary belief system about things in which they can fit comfortably. Are we creating truths when we endow our arbitrarily selected concepts and icons with faith, power, special abilities, virtues, aesthetic features and more?
By mythologizing them, we can make them immortal and ever-present, regardless of our intentions. And in doing so, we also generously appoint ourselves creators, and those of something immortal at that.
“Myth is a transition between magical and rational thinking. Myths are pseudo-rational explanations,”[2] writes the Hungarian psychologist Péter Popper,
who also frequently refers to Georges Sorel's argument that we are anxious when we do not understand the world. We strive for understanding, yet we create pseudo-explanations. So what is behind such myth creation? Is it fear? We are living in an age full of anxiety, worried about global warming, the collapse of the global economic order, the decline of capitalism, the refugee crisis, overpopulation, terrorism, viruses, and now also war. However, the foundation of our fear is hopelessness, an unknown situation for which we are not prepared. In one study[3], American existentialist psychologist Irvin D. Yalom wrote about the four general, greatest fears of man, which he called “ultimate concerns”. In their original order, they were the fear of death, of freedom, of meaninglessness, and of isolation. There are so many good examples for this, from the absurdism of Albert Camus to the pandemic, but the idea of the fear of freedom stands out. How do fear and freedom fit together?
For Yalom, freedom also includes the concepts of responsibility and will, and he highlights the problem of decisions (decision pathology) as a fear factor. Although Kierkegaard distinguishes between the notions of anxiety and fear, he describes the former as a fear of nothingness, of something that has no object, something that is outside of us and unknown. For him, freedom as the infinite possibilities for human action also falls into this category. Heidegger goes even further by saying that the object of anxiety is actually the world itself, or more precisely, “being-in-the- world".
Freedom has become an important issue in the 20th century, and has been seen as something to be fought for and defended. According to Erich Fromm, practicing freedom means submitting to an authoritarian system; thereby, the individual’s uncertainty is eliminated as the system will tell them what to think and do.[4] For American intellectuals like Arthur Schlesinger jr., the anxiety of freedom during the Cold War is considered vis-à-vis the need for security, or rather for comfort. Schlesinger argues that anxiety is an element of democratic societies, a result of the high degree of freedom of choice, and of the ensuing individual responsibility. 
Our “social malaise”[5] is exacerbated by individual and social guilt that accompanies us from the fall of Eden to the judgment implicit in today's conscious way of living. Ideas outside the framework of social values and actions that threaten collective conformism can easily be construed as enemies. Fear is the determining factor in politics, and fear of the enemy promotes social unity. And to the question of what happens when myth becomes politics, Péter Popper replies that it becomes power; and power controls us and deprives us of freedom.
Just one question remains: if every way out is accompanied by anxiety, if fears feed freedom but at the same time fears feed myths, then why do we choose the latter, the pseudo-rational solution, instead of the real one? To continue Fromm’s logic, namely that freedom is not a pleasurable experience in itself, and therefore, we create security strategies like authoritarian, destructive, or conformist processes. And while the former are characteristic of those in power, conformist people unconsciously embrace the normative beliefs and thought processes of their society and experience them as their own.
That is why many choose the myth that allows them to avoid genuine free thinking that would trigger anxiety.
I consider the above ideas using the tools of photography and visual art. I seek out opportunities for freedom, exit that are futuristic or rather post-apocalyptic scenarios. The degraded natural and the collapsed built environment come to life not only through the photographs but also through a location-specific installation depicting the interior of a crashed spaceship and the lunar landscape surrounding it.
[1] Lyotard, Jean-François. The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge, U of Minnesota P, 1984.
[2] Popper, Péter. Az önmagába térő ösvény [The Path that Returns to Itself, in Hungarian], Saxum, 2012.
[3] Yalom, Irvin D. Existential Psychotherapy, Basic Books, 1980.
[4] Fromm, Erich. Escape from Freedom, Avon Books, 1965.
[5] Furedi, Frank. Culture of Fear: Risk-taking and the Morality of Low Expectation, rev. ed., Continuum, 2002.
Details of artworks in order of their appearance:
1. ALIEN, 2020, part of the NO FEAR analogue photo series, Berlin unique 1/1, self-developed b&w photography, 13x18cm, Forte fine art photo paper.
2. Babel, 2021, part of the Escape photo series, Berlin,1/1 unique, 18x24cm, self-made print, Forte fine art paper.
3. NoFear No. 7, 2020, 13x18cm, self-developed, Forte fine art photopaper.
4. No fear, 2020, part of the NO FEAR analogue photo series, Berlin unique 1/1, self-developed b&w photography, 13x18cm, Forte fine art photo paper.
5. Exit, 2021, part of the Escape photo series, Berlin, 1/1 unique, 18x24cm, self-made print, Forte fine art paper.
Artist bio:
Hajnal Szolga is a Hungarian visual artist, photographer. She studied philosophy and visual communication in Hungary, received scholarships to Humboldt University Berlin, CEU Valencia and MOME Budapest, and finalized her curatorial studies at the Robert Bosch Foundation. She studied photography in Berlin, focusing on analog black & white photography, including darkroom processes. Her works present a critical view of social, ecological, and cultural issues. Her narrative photography is focused on a doubt about mass consumption and on its social and psychological effects. She studies the human behavior as it affects nature and our possessions, and usually addresses the relationship between people and their environment, mostly reflecting on the consequences of climate change through her own subjective, futuristic visions.
