Art has always been, covering the entire spectrum of relationships, close to Power. Sculptures of heroes(or patriots?), hyperbolic buildings for God’s worship, kings portraits, historical novels… But also criticism against the war or dictatorships, exposure of society’s weaknesses, fight against racism, sexism, slavery… artists have always been IN or AGAINST the system (or both at the same time). But, as we know, the greatest artists, even if they where paid by royalty or religion, they always continued exploring the universe in many ways other than just painting hunting portraits or sculpting perfect greek muscles. In a personal and unique way, every artist make questions. The difficult ones. Where are we? Who are they? What are they hiding? What do they want? Who are we as a society? And as individuals? What does Power mean? Who owns it? The difference between journalists and artists is basically that journalist are not an active player in the conflict. They just try to show it to the world as hard as they can. But artists take and active part in the conflict. They create things, and those things have their own entity in the real world. It´s not the same to do mass produced portraits of Marilyn Monroe, than writing an article about Andy Warhol. That’s, to me, the main difference between both. But don’t get me wrong, they both are equally important when it comes to evolution and society’s health. We need real artists to explore the limits of reality, and we need real journalists to tell us what should be trusted.

That being said, nowadays, the ones that are making the right questions to the right people are, clearly, the hackers. They leak, they break, they create. Even if we are not aware about the complexity of their pieces of art, they are using a language (actually many languages) to communicate their message to the world. If we take a look back at one of the most famous paintings of all the time, La Gioconda, Da Vinci, for example, was an engineer! And I’m sure that he wasn’t actively delimitating the different fields he worked on. “This is art, this is not, this is art, na na na”. He was just an artist giving his life a purpose. Same for Antoni Gaudí. Is there any doubt that Sagrada Família is one of the biggest pieces of art ever? And he was an architect. A mathematician brain. He was just trying to get closer to God in every way he could; he wasn’t thinking about “what branch of arts should I take this 1920 to be trendy on instagram?”, or to be at The MOMA. Let’s be honest here. It’s been a long time since the most common forms of art are corrupted by capitalism and their whims. THIS is better than ‘this’ just because a small elite of speculators need to clean their money. And they are moving everything around the arts scene at their will. I’m not saying that all artists are corrupted and all old forms of art are rubbish, but I’m sure you got the idea.

Some of these new artists are actually working for the establishment, like facebook or google. Others are prosecuted by the law, like Snowden and Assange. But the vast majority of them remain Anonymous. They are exploring the dogmas, lies and truths that no one wants to listen. That no one wants to see. Capitalism may not be as bad as other ideologies we already had before. But it still far from ideal, the opposite of what the status quo wants us to believe. Any other option means communism. (I read a nice quote yesterday about it: “Capitalism is: you will never have two cows, but you should fear communism because it will steal you one”). And hackers are trying to break down this Disney’s tale. Capitalism is not about freedom of individuals and economic free trade. Is about Control and Wealth to the 1%, through military power and outlaw/inequitable connections. That’s the reason why we need hackers. That’s why we need the Dark Net. That’s why we need, probably in a more advanced and complex state than never before, our true and real Artists.