WHAT DOES IT TAKE TO KNOW FREEDOM?

June 15, 2020, marked the beginning of a 50 day-long performance piece by Berlin-based painter and performance artist LiLi 丽丽 Nacht. Affected by the collective traumas that we all encountered in the summer of 2020, Nacht picked up her brush to embark on a process of meditation and deep reflection.
Rather than finding answers, the experience led her to several questions:
How can we be held accountable for our actions?
How do we deal with the inevitable vulnerabilities that arise when faced with dismantling long-held modes of behavior?
What does it take to know freedom?

The formal qualities of this painting performance pay homage to the material and mechanical painting techniques that Nacht acquired during the first year of her MFA at the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou (中国美术学院). Inspired by the importance of repetition in traditional Chinese ink techniques, Nacht created daily paintings based on the American flag, infusing Eastern painting methods with Western iconography.