A 23-karat gold-coated, completely naked statue of US President Donald Trump, created by Danish artist Jens Galschiøt, has been unveiled near the European Parliament building in Strasbourg. Titled The Orange Plague, the eight-foot-long sculpture shows a naked Donald Trump holding a golf club in one hand and the scales of justice in the other. He is being carried by a far smaller, visibly exhausted man, with a world-shaped ball right beneath him.
The words “The King of Injustice” are inscribed at the base, along with the text: “I am sitting on the back of a man. He is sinking under my burden. I will do anything to help him. Except stepping down from his back.”
Artist calls it a ‘satirical outcry’
Galschiøt said the sculpture was a “satirical outcry” against the volatility of American foreign and green policy. “Trump represents one of the greatest threats to the rule-based world order, democratic values, and our common effort to solve the climate crisis,” he said in a statement. “We must address this issue and stand together against such destructive influence.”
Danish MEP Per Clausen welcomed the unveiling of the statue. “If someone is so thin-skinned that they cannot tolerate this sculpture being exhibited in the European Parliament, then they have no place on the world stage,” he said.
Next stop: COP31 in Turkey
The installation is scheduled to remain in Strasbourg until Thursday. It will appear again at the UN COP31 Climate Conference in Turkey in November, where the artist will distribute 3D-printed miniature replicas to delegates.
Who is Jens Galschiøt?
Galschiøt is a prominent sculptor known for political commentary through his art. He is best known for Pillar of Shame, a series of sculptures depicting eight-metre-high, twisted human bodies. It was unveiled just ahead of the handover of Hong Kong from British rule to China, as a protest against China’s crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
The latest sculpture also bears a resemblance to, or draws inspiration from, the artist’s earlier work, Survival of the Fattest, which shows a starved boy carrying an overweight woman as a visual metaphor for global inequality.