I. THE HEROES SERIES

Old but gold? Aging concerns us all. The question becomes more unsettling when fragility and cognitive decline are imagined within the bodies of those who hold immense power. The figure is seated on a throne assembled from brightly colored blocks, materials associated with play, construction, and childhood imagination while, in the background, the most powerful weapon on Earth advances relentlessly through the sea. The aircraft carrier suggests a force already set in motion, as if such overwhelming power were commanded by someone approaching the end of life, exposing a disturbing tension between human decline and unstoppable military momentum. Authority is often imagined as stable, controlled, and invulnerable; the aging body disrupts this illusion, exposing uncertainty, hesitation, and the risk of impaired judgment. Does fragility strike back at those who have built their authority on fantasies of omnipotence and aggressive self‑assertion? When decision‑makers themselves become fragile, the structures they govern appear equally precarious, revealing how power is not only exercised through dominance but is also shaped by human limitation. A finger moves, suspended between action and helplessness. Is it an automatic, unconscious movement, or as a silent request for help when language can no longer express? It can also be understood as a form of regression: a return to primitive, bodily expression. Yet half of the body recalls something else entirely, a digitally constructed form, distant from physical reality. Is this body still real? Is it appearing, or already disappearing? The image oscillates between presence and simulation, raising the question of what distinguishes a copy from a simulacrum. What remains when representation no longer refers to an original, but only to itself?