Tuesday October 7, the artist Jens Galschiøt revealed The orange plague, a 2.6m tall sculpture depicting US President Donald Trump naked and perched on the shoulders of a frail man, inside the European Parliament building in Strasbourg, France. Covered in 23-karat gold leaf, the figure of Trump holds a small scale of justice in one hand and a golf club in the other. A golf ball-sized globe sits at the feet of the smaller, frail man below him, who is painted bronze.
The sculpture was installed on a pedestal bearing the title of the work and a caption that reads: “I am sitting on a man’s back. He is sinking under my burden. I will do anything to help him. Except get off his back.”
According to the artist, the work is inspired by the work of Hans Christian Andersen The emperor’s new clothes, a fairy tale in which an emperor is convinced to buy “invisible” clothes that don’t actually exist. While people applaud the naked king, “a little boy says, ‘He has no clothes,’ and then everyone starts making fun of him,” says Galschiøt. The art journal. He adds that when he revealed The golden plague, the sculpture was also greeted with laughter and applause.
3D printed miniature versions of Jens Galschiøt The Orange Plaguewhich were given to visitors to an exhibition at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Courtesy of Jens Galschiøt
The sculpture is the centerpiece of a three-day exhibition organized by Per Clausen, Danish Member of the European Parliament (MEP). All visitors receive a 3D printed miniature of the sculpture to take home. Galschiøt claims to have printed around 20,000 sculptures which he distributed not only to visitors but also to European Parliament staff. Galschiøt has also made the design files free for anyone who wants to print their own.
Galschiøt was inspired to distribute the miniatures by the Movement for Democracy in Hong Kong, which scanned and 3D printed hundreds of miniature versions of his 1997 sculpture. The Pillar of Shamewhich commemorates human rights violations, including the Tiananmen Square massacre. These miniature pillars appeared across Hong Kong after the original sculpture was seized and dismantled.
“Normally I attack systems, but in this case I will attack Trump personally,” says Galschiøt. His rendering was inspired by the vast gilding of the White House Oval Office and other properties he controls. “Now we’re handing him gold,” the artist says, adding that the resulting image is “even more ridiculous than before.” “Trump shines so brightly that no one can see the others.”
That of Jens Galschiot The Orange Plague exhibited at the European Parliament building in Strasbourg Courtesy of Jens Galschiøt
The Orange Plague has already been on display at the “Hands Off Greenland” protests in Copenhagen earlier this year and at the UN CopP30 Climate Summit in Belém, Brazil last year. After the present installation in Strasbourg, Galschiøt plans to exhibit The Orange Plague again at the Cop31 UN Climate Conference next month in Antalya, Türkiye.
“Nations as well as NGOs are afraid to openly address the topic of how to deal with Trump and his policies, fearing tariffs, funding cuts, expulsions or others,” Galschiøt wrote on his website.. “As an independent art studio, we are not limited by such connections. This sculpture was made to address the ‘elephant in the room’ and start a necessary debate (about) how the United States is destroying the world’s only chance to counter climate catastrophe.”
A spokesperson for the European Parliament said CNN that the exhibition of Galschiøt’s sculpture had been approved by Parliament’s Quaestors, a cross-party group of MEPs who manage administrative decisions. “Each MEP has the right to sponsor two cultural events or exhibitions per legislature in dedicated spaces,” added the spokesperson.
Galschiøt’s work is part of a long line of protest art targeting Trump in the decade since he launched his presidential campaign in 2016, much of it brilliantly gilded, depicting him fully or nearly naked — and, sometimes, both.
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