As a child, I often heard people say to me: you are not an ordinary child, you are ‘unusual, strange’. I didn’t really understand what they meant but I grew up carrying with me this aura of ‘strangeness’, of a person who was somehow ‘out of the ordinary’. Far be it from me to think of being extraordinary but I have learned to recognize the meaning and value of what is so, I am equally aware that today the boundary between what is ordinary and what is not, can seem blurred. We live in a world full of noise, in which everything mixes, everything urges, overlaps, stuns you and which tends above all to celebrate homologation, ordinariness. It almost becomes an act of resistance to slow down and get in touch with that part of us that challenges conventions and embraces the unpredictable. It is a question of sensitivity, of openness to knowledge and understanding of other worlds. It is also a journey of inner exploration. What is Out of the Ordinary has the unique ability to reveal hidden truths and challenge our perceptions. It can take multiple forms and concern different contexts: from works of art that break the rules of beauty, to unexpected events that break the daily monotony, to individuals who detach themselves from social rules and ask uncomfortable questions about what we consider right, beautiful or useful. Being ‘out of the ordinary’ involves an act of courage, of creativity, but also of vulnerability. It is not just about following an alternative vision. Great changes, whether in thought, art, or science, have always come from minds that have had the courage to think beyond the ordinary, that have seen opportunities where others saw only limitations. In the field of art, Surrealism or Avant-gardism were expressions of a break with the past. The artists of these currents did not limit themselves to reproducing the world as it was; they deformed it, interpreted it, challenged it. Just as today, many of the most influential artists are those who break the canons and see imperfection or discontinuity as a creative force. So ‘out of the ordinary’ has a stronger meaning than the simple synonym of strangeness. It is a force that challenges the usual, invites us to look at the world from new perspectives, often revealing hidden beauties and profound meanings, which pushes us to grow, to create, to dream. It is the absurd, the grotesque, the bizarre that, at times, brings us closer to the truth than rationality allows us to do. And based on these reflections we have chosen to tell the story of wonderful artists in whose works the ordinary and the extraordinary coexist and reveal profound truths about the human condition and the perception of reality. Their being out of the ordinary is not an aesthetic expedient in itself, but a way to look beyond the visible using languages that are sometimes enigmatic but seductive, rich in symbolism and introspection. We have constructed each shot of our photo shoot really carefully. We wanted it to be a sort of oneiric journey, an experience that transcends reality to explore sceneries and situations without rules or logic. Luckily our reader and the world of eyewear to which we mainly address and in which we move is absolutely and wonderfully Out of the Ordinary. They will recognize themselves in the pages of this new issue of LYF and we are sure they will love it.
Enjoy!