Art exhibition Islands. The biggest and international annual art show on Madeira island

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Since the outbreak of COVID-19, several safety measures have been introduced to our daily lives.

The face mask has been a two-sided icon of the pandemic, representing separation and censorship on one hand, and care and protection on the other. The fine line between control and protection is being discussed as a blurred one, and all forms of social contact seem to be on a spiral of change. Through this context, creativity strikes artists all around the globe, as a safe, and not forbidden way of organizing a collective response to human experience. Art is a powerful coping mechanism, connecting difficulties to solutions, and presenting a unique form of communication, one that can transcend language and social barriers. Using this transcendence, Islands 2020 offers an opportunity to show how individual artists have responded to, and navigated, the enforced restrictions on personal freedom, as a result of the global pandemic.