text: Carsten Theumer

The medal Freedom, 2013

What does freedom mean to me?
To be able to act with self-determination, to make decisions without force or constraint? Most definitely. In Germany, the conditions for just that are the best they have ever been.
And yet we still find ourselves bound by constraint, again and again, until, without really noticing, we are caught in a new “cage”.
Does this mean we have to free ourselves time and time again?

The children of the Selfie Generation have long since grown up; they have swapped their smartphones for a newer model many times over. The number of cameras is growing at a disproportionate rate to the world’s population; they look down on us from outer space with greater focus than ever before, and for entirely beneficial reasons, I’m sure!
And even though this shift in perspective, this looking at us humans from a distance, makes us seem a lot more alike, for most people on this planet, the word “freedom” is still one filled with longing.

Things often look quite different from afar than they do up close. Does that apply to freedom as well?
Can we truly say that our actions today are self-determined? Are we still autonomous beings?
To what extent will we be able to assert ourselves in our networked world?
And above all, how can we go about our lives unnoticed if we want things a completely different way?

This medal asks all these questions; it might even ask altogether different ones.
And that’s exactly what I set out to create: a medal that doesn’t provide answers.
Which means it might stay topical for a bit longer.