You may have seen the story a few weeks back about the eco-fanatics over in France who entered the Louvre, approached the Mona Lisa and sprayed soup all over its protective glass barrier as part of what they called a “food counterattack”. The West’s “agricultural system is sick”, they proclaimed, something which meant that “Our farmers are dying at work”.
Cynics might say the true reason so many European farmers are actually dying at work at the moment is because they keep on committing suicide in their barns on account of wrong-headed and ruinous EU-led attempts to force the “sick” agricultural patient in question into ruder green eco-health via mountains of unsustainable bureaucracy and other such quasi-Marxist faff, but the protesters did not agree. “What is more important?” they asked. “Art or the right to healthy and sustainable food?”
“Art!” say I, standing in front of the Mona Lisa myself and happily chomping on chocolate (milk chocolate, just to be clear, produced direct from the lovely white fluids of methane-belching cows).
New Age Thinking
Distasteful though these adolescent antics are, it might actually be better if such temper-tantrum toddlers doused all great paintings in soup rather than painted them all systematically green with their increasingly extreme ideologies instead, as has recently occurred with a new exhibition of the works of the esteemed German Romantic painter Caspar David Friedrich (1774-1840). In some ways, the physical vandalism would actually be less damaging than its ideological variant. At least the soup-sprayers are outright criminal outsiders; the history-rewriting men with green paintbrushes are the galleries’ actual curators.
Friedrich is best known for his uncanny landscape paintings, in which the German and Baltic landscapes he depicted become imbued with a real sense of pantheism, whereby the human onlookers portrayed become measly incidental Rückenfiguren (backwards-facing figures) by comparison with the mighty peaks, twisted trees and sheer-faced cliffs of ice. Although compositionally in the foreground, the puny humanoids are really the mere background to the far vaster canvas of water, rocks, clouds, fields and skies. Thus, if you squint a bit, they almost represent the sort of post-human world many a contemporary eco-cultist of the Patricia MacCormack or Voluntary Human Extinction Movement-type might like to see come true for real, a planet from which mankind’s detrimental influence has been removed forever, and where Nature has reclaimed her rightful rule: the pre-industrial and the post-industrial come together happily as one.
The most celebrated canvas of Friedrich is undoubtedly his Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (c.1818), owned by the Hamburg Kunsthalle (i.e., Hamburg Art Gallery), which is currently celebrating the 250th anniversary of the painter’s birth with a new show, ‘Caspar David Friedrich: Art for a New Age’. As the exhibition’s title suggests, the whole thing is intended as one big exercise in shoehorning the work of a man who has been dead for nigh on two centuries into the chief political obsession of those within the New Age New World Order who now rule over us: climate change.
Fog Off!
Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog is, appropriately enough for our sad era of art activism, already covered over in something of a pea-souper: if you don’t know it, it’s the one where a lone climber, dressed in period Young Werther-style blue frock-coat and clutching a walking-stick, stands atop some jagged mountain crown, with his back positioned enigmatically to the viewer, staring out over the peaks of other rocky outcrops, which pierce the all-consuming fog like tiny islands in a lake. The overwhelming impression is of minuscule mankind left helpless and adrift in an all-consuming sea of white, grey and blue. And yet, if you head to the Hamburg Kunsthalle’s official exhibition website, Friedrich’s Wanderer now stands overlooking not some strange aerial Heaven, but some fearsome earthly Hell. The blues and whites have all become reds and oranges, like so:
What’s happened? Well, haven’t you heard? Our planet is on fire! At least, so say the serried ranks of pea-soup-throwers and their allied pea-brains in the contemporary art world. The Kunsthalle’s show lasts, strangely, until April 1st: surely it should have started then? Perhaps not, as these people are actually in deadly earnest. The oft-promised ‘climate apocalypse’ is dubiously forecast to cause all kinds of looming problems for helpless mankind, but impossibly incinerating the past is surely not one of them.
No longer can a museum or art exhibition just be allowed to be about an artist or historical figure. Instead, no opportunity to forcibly re-educate the populace or dumb down outrageously can ever possibly be wasted, so it now always has to be about ‘X person and subject Y’: ‘Admiral Nelson and Homosexuality‘, for instance, or (I’m not making this up) ‘Vincent van Gogh and Pokémon’. Here, the Kunsthalle has decided to go with not only ‘Caspar David Friedrich’, but ‘Caspar David Friedrich and the Climate Emergency’. How about just putting on a show called ‘Caspar David Friedrich and His Bloody Brilliant Paintings’ for once?
Just Stop Ruining Oil Paintings
The interesting thing is, back in early 2023, a band of climate change protesters, led by activist artist Lula Merlo (pictured here wearing a ‘Just Stop Oil’ t-shirt) had invaded the Hamburg Kunsthalle armed with a version of this very same doctored image, re-entitled Wanderer Above a Sea of Fire, and attempted to glue it over the top of Friedrich’s real original artwork. The protesters were stopped by what was termed “a quick-thinking member of staff”, who I am guessing might have been a humble, non-indoctrinated security guard. Had it been one of the building’s chief curators, presumably he would have just handed the green fanatics over a spare tube of Pritt Stick and told them to go for it. After all, a large photograph of Merlo’s parody is now an actual part of the Kunsthalle’s real Friedrich exhibition. We once spoke of lunatics taking over the asylum. Now we have philistines taking over the art gallery.
To be fair, whilst the exhibition is explicitly pegged towards climate change, the show as a whole does feature around 70 genuine paintings and 100 sketches actually produced by Caspar David Friedrich during his lifetime, and apparently restricts the green propaganda stuff to a separate but linked exhibition area at the end – so, if you’re sensible, you can just go and see the real art, then run straight out past the final few rooms, vomiting broth on the agitprop as you go.
But, if you do flee the building in soup-spewing horror, what treats will you be missing out on? How about Julian Charriere’s 2013 The Blue Fossil Entropic Stories III, a long-distance photograph of an iceberg, doctored so that a tiny, Friedrich-style figure stands atop it brandishing a small flamethrower? Or David Claerbout’s 2019-20 Wildfire (meditation on fire), which is described as “a vast lightbox” showing film of a slowly-burning forest fire caused by you, eating meat, driving a car and farting? Or Swaantje Güntzel’s Arctic Jogurt, Dezember 2nd 2021, a photograph in which Swaantje stands, like Friedrich’s wanderer, with her back to the viewer, photographed in the act of throwing a plastic yoghurt pot into a Norwegian fjord? (This one really is worth looking at, it’s beyond all parody: “On December 2nd 2021 at 12.04 a.m. I ate a yoghurt and threw the plastic pot into the Ofotfjord (Norway)”, the artist informs us, in an extract from her apparently extremely empty diary.)
Alternatively, if you prefer feminism to environmentalism, you could enjoy Finnish photographer Elina Brotherus’s 2004 The Wanderer 2, in which a female figure (or possibly a transsexual, it’s hard to tell) recreates the pose of Friedrich’s original male fog-wanderer, in order to conclusively prove, once and for all, that women are also capable of using their eyes to look at things within an outdoor environment, just like men are. For the many compulsive race-Marxists amongst the Kunsthalle’s visitors, meanwhile, the gallery has also begun inserting images of random black men into copies of Friedrich’s canvases now, too. Either that, or climate change in Europe’s artistic past has now got so bad, it’s even started sunburning all the Rückenfiguren.
False Framings
The Kunsthalle’s exhibition caused quite some controversy in Germany, with one prominent columnist, Alan Posener, accurately calling it mere “indoctrination” steeped in “infantile didacticism” in Die Welt. And yet, it seemed to come with official Government approval. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeyer attended the show’s opening, dubiously identifying an “existential uncertainty” as being present within the dead artist’s paintings. Just as, during Friedrich’s own day, Europe’s future was at risk from the militarism of Napoleon, Steinmeyer implied, so today the continent was equally under threat from a new form of global warming so severe it could even somehow retrospectively burn the fictional mountainsides of pre-Victorian landscape paintings.
Curiously, the Kunsthalle’s online press kit reveals that the entire exhibition “has been fully funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media”, which is presumably why the whole thing comes laden with standard governing-class Leftist propaganda. The press kit directly quotes Claudia Roth, Germany’s Culture Minister, as lauding how Friedrich’s works “show how directly humans are interwoven with their environment. With a view to the current challenges posed by climate change, the works of Caspar David Friedrich come across as a painterly plea to protect Nature in all its beauty and vulnerability”.
No, they only “come across” like that if you deliberately mis-frame them to imply that they do so, as an integral part of the whole exhibition – even including its title – so as to transform what is supposed to be an exercise in public education into a pathetic exercise in public re-education instead. Where will this process of blatantly anachronistic misrepresentation end? Perhaps rising global temperatures were why Salvador Dalí’s famous watches were really melting all those years ago when he painted them?
We used to speak of ‘art for art’s sake’. Now, we have art for politics’ sake. Ironically enough, isn’t this whole costly state-subsidised eco-fest just one giant exercise in polluting the past?
Steven Tucker is a journalist and the author of over 10 books, the latest being Hitler’s & Stalin’s Misuse of Science: When Science Fiction Was Turned Into Science Fact by the Nazis and the Soviets (Pen & Sword/Frontline), which is out now.
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“Something must be closed. The schools are something. Therefore they must be closed.”
They are all guilty as hell.
Talking of the covid “inquiry”:
Allison Pearson on X: “Sunak did well so far in his evidence. Quite right to spell out the harm lockdown posed to hospitality and other industries employing some of our poorest. Hugo Keith KC grandly says, “We’re not interested in QALYS”. Well, the taxpayer is interested in vast sums the NHS would…” / X (twitter.com)
Hugo Keith KC grandly says, “We’re not interested in QALYS”.
Huge Keith KC doesn’t appear to be interested in very much at all…..apart from “gotcha moments,” rude WattsApp messages ….. and exonerating The Blob from any culpability in the destruction of our economy and millions of lives.
I’m sure he’s executing the script with aplomb. Whoever chose him, chose well, or briefed him well, or both.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Homburg absolutely nails the events of the last three years for Germany. We should have a UK version for our phoney covid enquiry. It would swing hordes away from the narrative!
https://www.bitchute.com/video/uM0dIv4nX1cM/
It says it’s a speech to the German parliament but not clear who exactly. Given the applause, if it was MPs it would only be AfD MPs, surely?
The truth remains the truth whoever is listening.
Oh I’ve nothing against those MPs (if that’s what they were) – quite the opposite. Just surprised that such a man making such a speech would be allowed anywhere near a German parliament building – though to be fair I suppose Bridgen hosted a similar session, albeit attended by only a few.
The AFD is mentioned and their logo shown on the screen behind Dr Homberg.
Makes sense. They were the only ones to oppose covidianism at a national political level in Germany, to my knowledge. Horrible right wing racists of course.
They were the only fascists in favour of freedom, funny that!
AFD
That’s definitely not in parliament. It seem to be some sort of recorded AfD conference.
Interesting. I thought it might be some kind of meeting room within the parliament building.
That’s from the 11th and 12th of November 2023 and – as also seen on the German sign in the background – is from the 2nd corona symposium/ conference of the AfD faction in the German Federal Parliament (Bundestag).
It should also amply demonstrate why the parties of the current coalition (SPD, Greens, FDP) would very much like to outlaw the AfD which is already observed by the German inland secret service.
Complete recordings (in German and presumably, without subtitles) can be found on YouTube by looking for
2. Corona-Symposium der AfD-Fraktion im Deutschen Bundestag
Thanks for the link. I had already come to the same conclusion, but just intuitively. It’s nice to know that someone collected the necessary informations. Summary of factual key claims:
According to official statistics released by various German government offices (all quoted),
The only epidemic which occurred in Germany was an epidemic of positive PCR test results of overwhelmingly healthy people and an epidemic of sensationalists headlines about the purported horrors of COVID.
Politicians playing God.
I hate the bastards.
Back in March 2020 was an interview with a Korean COVID-19 ‘expert’ and as well as the assertions that China controlled this well with strong restrictions there is this answer about education.
Stephen Park (Interviewer): “In Korea the start of the school is being postponed, people are practicing social distancing, and the government even sends regular updates via texts. How well do you think this is all being handled?”
Professor Kim Woo-Joo “On March 20th, a couple days ago, the prime minister made a special announcement that he strongly recommends social distancing. So religious facilities, places people hang out, like bars, and indoor gyms… From march 20 for 2 weeks, these 3 types of places were strongly recommended to shut down. But this is not mandatory. People who are over 50 or 60 are following these protocols well. But teens and those in their 20s are not, because for teens in Korea, their education is very important. Even if they are sick and have a fever, they have to go to school and academy. The school year was postponed for elementary, middle, and high school because of COVID-19, but in the evening kids go to academies. So even if the government pushed back school, kids will still go to academy to study at night. Since I checked last weekend 90% of academies are open. In Asia, the college you go to determines your future.”
So not only did the kids continue their education, even when infected, but they were taught, presumably by someone much older!!!
Evidence is at 25:11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAk7aX5hksU&t=1808s
You Need To Listen To This Leading COVID-19 Expert From South Korea | STAY CURIOUS #15
Schools, shops, who cares?
Rishi Sunak “admits” covid was a scam and he is guilty of malfeasance in public office – that would be worth reporting
An even better ending would be one of the leading figures committing suicide due to being plagued by his conscience and leaving a long letter of possibly tearful confessions. Sadly, due to the need for cost savings, they don’t build public officials or politicians with consciences anymore these days.
Ah secondary school transmission…. The old orange juice on the lft giving a positive trick….
Neither should have been closed in the first place.
The Government knew Covid was a Low Consequence Infectious Disease, with low mortality rates and really only dangerous to the very elderly and people with serious co-morbidities.
They should have shielded the vulnerable and let everyone else get on with their lives and develop herd immunity.
But I believe Johnson was ordered to lockdown – probably by the CIA which knew it was a bio-weapon and wanted a mass human medical experiment to test the “vaccine” against it.
The Government knew Covid was a Low Consequence Infectious Disease, with low mortality rates and really only dangerous to the very elderly and people with serious co-morbidities.
This is still standing on its head: What’s dangerous (in the sense of risk of death) to these people is that they’re very elderly or have serious comorbidities aka already very frail. Which means that even generally harmless diseases may push them over the edge. So-called elderly people are at least a large fraction of those still running around masked and someone really ought to tell them that it’s not the Chinese mummery¹ which stopped them from dying during the last three years but their generally still robust enough constitution which enabled their bodies to cope with everyday diseases like colds.
¹ I have no proof for that but judging from observations, I’m pretty convinced that Chinese mummery, insofar actually done by the Chinese, is not so much about real-world protection but more a social status symbol for those who can afford it which roughly means I’m sufficiently well-to-do that I don’t have to breathe the same air than those of the lower orders and they’re certainly not entitled to see my face when I can’t avoid interacting with them. Maybe with some additional I don’t have to expose may face to the sun and risk it getting brownish thrown in — prior to holiday beach culture, a tan used to be a mark of people who had to work out in the open all day.
But I think here in the West a tan now represents affluence because those with a tan can either afford a sunbed, or they can afford to travel to warm destinations. All those wonderful things the West once prided itself of, now TPTB want to slowly remove those opportunities without the majority noticing.
Middle-class affluence — can afford package holidays, as opposed to being stuck in an eternal on work – off work zero hour contract loop in some low-level service job.
“It was designed in the context of a safe reopening.”
Posturing or did and does he still really believe this cr*p?
Safe like giving James Bond’s name and tel.no, or like walking in with masks and taking them off when sitting down?
Nothing made and could have made a difference.
Until he gets that, he has not understood a thing
And don’t forget the substantial meal (is a Scotch egg one)!