I first painted a mural with this motive at Berlin’s Teufelsberg Radar Station early in 2017. Since then it has made quite the impacted and was featured by many blogs online and on facebook, such as IsupportStreetArt.com, @street_art_community.
A making of video painting at Teufelsberg can be found here.
Description:
‘Soulmates’ shows Donald Trump (President of the United States) on the left and Bakr al-Baghdadi (leader of the Islamic State) on the right. Both have turned their back to one another but are united on a giant dark red heart. The idea was to show the similarities of these seemingly opposing identities and ideologies. They have far more in common than one might think:
- extreme simplification of reality, which divides the world in ‘black-and-white’, ‘we’ against ‘them’ etc.
- convinced that they are right/ speaking for the people.
- authoritarian rebellion against the ruling system (‘the West’ and ‘the establishment’) which in their view does not represent the majority of the people.
- abolishing democracy and its liberties.
- reactionary ideas: authoritarian view, anti-liberalism, anti-feminism, patriarchy, traditional gender roles.
- conspiracy theories which draws them as victims: The own culture is threatened by an invasion of ‘The West’ / ‘Immigrants’.
- fighting against refugees (displacement of people / ‘Muslim ban’)
and I think most frightening of all: They both believe, they are good people.
Details:
- hand cut stencil sprayed (aerosol) on wood panel
- size 100 x 100 cm
- signed with certificate
- this is shipped flat
- edition of 1
