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DARK
NAÏVE
MANIFESTO
— by Andy Arno
I. CONTRAST IS MY TRUTH
I’m not just one thing.
I am shadow and tenderness.
Industrial, broken and rusted — but also childish, luminous and ethereal.
I don’t want to choose between darkness and softness: I inhabit the grey.
This is where my art is born.
This is where I exist.
II. INNOCENCE ALSO HURTS
I don’t believe in perfection.
My naïve side is no cliché:
it’s what remains after watching everything burn.
It’s the light that refuses to die, even when it no longer believes.
My sweetness is wounded —
and my wound sings because it hasn’t lost hope.
III. I BELIEVE IN THE INVISIBLE
My art is inhabited by symbols.
I believe in signs, dreams, and rituals.
In the hidden magic of everyday life.
Everything has a soul —
even metal and stone.
Everything emits a frequency.
Everything is energy we constantly feed back into.
Berlin taught me this:
that the spirit survives in the cement,
and in grey days
of terror and violence.
IV. PAIN IS A SACRED PATH
I don’t try to cover my cracks:
I reveal and celebrate them.
There is beauty in them —
learning, transformation.
Chaos, rage, loss, loneliness: all of it is part of my alchemy.
My art does not deny suffering —
it transfigures it.
V. I AM SYMBOL AND FLESH
I’m not just aesthetics, nor just concept.
I am body, I am voice, I am living matter.
But everything I create speaks in symbols:
The weeping eyes that see everything, the owls, the sacred geometry, the alchemical seals, the purifying fire,
the invisible thread of who I once was.
Everything you see of me tells a hidden story —
one that can’t be read. Only sensed.
VI. MY ART IS THRESHOLD
I’m not here to please.
I’m here to open portals.
To stir the guts.
To connect worlds.
My art is industrial and celestial.
It’s digital and organic.
It is real —
and it also belongs to the dream realm.
It’s a place where the impossible can happen.
A sacred space with one ultimate goal:
To help integrate the shadow in society through art,
so we may all walk in the same direction.
A direction where there is only room
for creation,
empathy,
and Love.
VII. I DON'T ASK FOR PERMISSION
I DECLARE MYSELF
I don’t try to fit in.
I don’t have to explain why I do what I do.
I do it because it’s what I am.
And if they don’t understand me — even better.
My universe isn’t made for everyone.
It’s made for those who don’t need to see to believe.