Freedom of the press, environmental protection or the welfare state: people see many of these values threatened by former President Donald Trump. That is why an art action in Hamburg demands: “Don’t vote for Trump”.
For former US President Donald Trump’s 78th birthday, the artist Volker-Johannes Trieb gave the current presidential candidate a special gift: On Friday morning, the Osnabrück artist and his helpers hung 50 lifebuoys on a bridge in front of the US Consulate General in Hamburg’s Speicherstadt. The motto of the campaign is “Save yourself” – a large banner also demands: “America, save yourself – don’t vote for Trump”. The activists added a “never” above the golden letters of the address “Kehrwieder”.
The 50 lifebuoys are meant to represent the 50 US states, the artist said. Each lifebuoy has a term on it for an important element in social coexistence or democracy, which many see as threatened by Trump. It reads, for example: “Freedom of the press”, “truthfulness”, “environmental protection”, “rule of law”, “freedom of belief”, “welfare state” and “women’s rights”.
Artist Volker-Johannes Trieb, whose birthday is also on June 14, said: “I just had to give this birthday present. To him and to me. The US citizens can save themselves and us from Trump’s re-election by voting for democracy on November 5.”
Around 1900, Hamburg was one of the most important European emigration ports, with hundreds of thousands of people boarding ships here bound for America. Among them was Donald Trump’s grandfather, who left Germany for New York in 1905.
The artist Volker-Johannes Trieb has been committed to humanitarian and social causes for more than 30 years. With a protest action for the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, he drew attention to the fatal situation of migrant workers there by unloading 6,500 footballs filled with sand in front of the FIFA headquarters in Zurich.
Homepage of the artist
