Agata Sikora writes frankly about the shortcomings of authenticity and the advantages of artificial smiles.

These are strange times: those who built the systems pretend to be their vanquishers; sexists claim to be feminists; heiresses of fortunes pose as self-made women; and immature perpetrators of violence are presented as distinguished actors who are simply impersonating abominable characters. In reference to the initiation of Kevin Spacey’s trial, Tomasz Stawiszyński wrote recently that we are living in a “culture of appearances” which “favours facades and rewards those […] who thrive at this specific social game that relies on making an impression.” Popular opinion often blames television and social media for this situation, for creating a ubiquitous vanity fair, a dog-eat-dog world of images, profiles and ‘likes’.