Our reaction to the foreigners threatens our civilization

It is not the foreigners

but our reaction to the foreigners

that threatens our civilization

In 1993 I put up 20 heavy weight sculptures on some of the most central places in Europe. The sculpture was called “My Inner Beast”.

Hereby one of the first and biggest street art happenings was started. Each one of the sculptures weighed 1 ton, and was put up illegally, in secret and synchronized in only 2 days. The many sculptures were a sculptural symbolical proclamation about the European civilizations display of suicidal tendencies because of our reaction towards the refugees from the Yugoslavian civil war.

”My Inner Beast” is the symbol of the deselction of humanistic morale and ethics, and the additional choice of the animal side of mankind.

It was meant as a warning about a possible breakdown of the civilization in Europe, but also pointing out the fact, that we as Europeans have a choice. We could start to share our wealth with the rest of the world and keep our humanity, or we could uphold the imbalance and keep our wealth and lose our humanity.

Since then I have made 50 art manifestations all over the world, (See Wiki ) with the crucial theme: We have a choice between civilization and un-civilization, between humanism and anti-humanism, between being the animal and being the human.

I must admit, that art cannot change the world, but I stubbornly

claim the art being able to create new awareness, new angles and realisations about the reality, in which we are living. That is why we, as artists, must keep on maintaining our humanity, and use the language of art to reinterpret the world.

The last 6 years, I have had a big sculpture manifestation ”the Refugee Ship” with 80 copper sculptures of climate refugees, full size, on board. The art project is focusing on the coming climate changes, which will produce more than 200 million new refugees the next 40 years (According to the UN).

The refugee ship has visited more than 40 harbours in 6 different countries, and has started discussions about climate changes and climate refugees. We have also shared more than 200.000 graphic posters with information about the subject.

At the moment I am making more than 50 unique copper sculptures that will be put up permanently in the harbours which the refugee ship has visited. The sculptures faces are all equal to the refugees ship sculptures, and the new sculptures will be put up as a reminder about the situation in the Mediterranean sea, and the result of the social imbalance, we have created in the world.

The text that will be engraved on the plinth, is the headline of this letter, and this was a text I made more than 24 years ago, when I launched “My Inner Beast”

”It is not the foreigners, but our reaction to the foreigners that threatens our civilization.”

Best Regards

Jens Galschiøt –

Artist, and chair in the NGO 'Art In Defence Of Humanism' (AIDOH)

Contact information

Artist Jens Galschiot
Banevaenget 22

DK-5270 Odense N

Denmark+ 45 6618 4058 mobile + 45 6170 3083

aidoh@aidoh.dk