CREEP

22 01 2026

"I WISH I WAS SPECIAL

BUT I'M A CREEP, I'M A WEIRDO, WHAT THE HELL AM I DOING HERE?

I DON’ T BELONG HERE”

Concept by Mara Cipriano Senior Art Curator

If at least once in your life you have felt out of place, different, this is your art exhibition. Listen to the song linked above on YouTube, you probably already know it: Creep by Radiohead. A song that has marked entire generations and is perhaps the most famous one by the band. Why is it so loved? Because it speaks of a common yet hidden existential condition. An open and shared wound: that of feeling different, of not perfectly fitting the standards imposed by society.

The protagonist of Creep feels deeply insecure, excluded, and inadequate. The lyrics express a strong alienation and an inner pain born from feeling different from others. The protagonist experiences desire and shame at the same time: he wants to be noticed, but at the same time despises himself and believes he does not deserve attention or love. The phrase “I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo” sums up his way of seeing himself, as if he belonged to a world different from everyone else’s.

Being an artist means living with amplified sensitivity, perceiving more deeply what others only touch on the surface. This gift, however, comes at a price. Depth brings awareness, and awareness leads to the authenticity of being, which is far removed from what society tends to appreciate, since what society celebrates is often artificial and constructed. Diversity brings suffering, but it is also the artist’s strength: from the wound comes the urgency to create, to give shape to emotions in order to be freed and to inspire.

As Aristotle affirmed, the artist, and with him the spectator, transforms pathos into knowledge, suffering into awareness. The wound thus becomes language, a way of understanding the world. On the existential level, feeling different is also a sign of a deeper awareness of being. Many spiritual traditions interpret diversity as a sign of an inner calling. Those who feel out of place often possess a unique way of perceiving the world, a form of consciousness that drives them to seek deeper truths. The wound of being different thus becomes a place of revelation: the distance from the common world allows one to see it from another perspective.

M.A.D.S. invites artists to free themselves from this weight and to reveal themselves for who they truly are, through their own art and creativity.