UNITED WE don’t STAND

Victoria Albert

Sculpture - Second Hand T-Shirt (~ Size XL), Textiledding

When I discovered this T-Shirt in a Thrift store in Augsburg, Germany, one amused big laugh slipped me. Is that a bad joke? Souvenirs and merchandise like this from the USA can be found everywhere in the world. In the media, in different countries, at the person sitting next to you at school and therefore also in second-hand stores. They promote a false illusion that we are all too familiar with. Since I have never traveled to America, and for good reasons do not want to, I keep asking myself the same question: Is the Americans' view of the USA really such a glorified one? The presidential elections in particular – which will take place again this year in 2024 – regularly provide a bad spectacle worldwide and a perfect example of how disunited the USA really is and what a divide the two-party system is driving in the population. I keep wondering, do they talk themselves into it in an almost religious way or how can this idealisation of a country that broken be maintained? I wrote the words „Wie würdest du einem Amerikaner die Welt erklären“ (translated: How would you describe the world to an american?“) on the back of the shirt.