ROUBAIX, France — As statements go, it’s an enormous one.
A towering mural in France of the Statue of Liberty protecting her eyes is racking up tens of millions of views on-line with its swipe at U.S. President Donald Trump’s immigration and deportation insurance policies.
Amsterdam-based avenue artist Judith de Leeuw described her large work within the northern French city of Roubaix, which has a big immigrant group, as “a quiet reminder of what freedom must be.”
She mentioned “freedom feels out of attain” for migrants and “these pushed to the margins, silenced, or unseen.”
“I painted her protecting her eyes as a result of the load of the world has develop into too heavy to witness. What was as soon as a shining image of liberty now carries the sorrow of misplaced which means,” de Leeuw wrote in a July 4 submit on Fb, when People have been celebrating Independence Day.
Her depiction of the Statue of Liberty, a present from the French folks within the late 1800s, has impressed some sharp criticism.
Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican lawmaker from Tennessee, wrote in an indignant submit on X that the work “disgusts me.” He mentioned he had an uncle who fought and died in France, the place U.S. forces noticed fight in each World Battle I and World Battle II.
In an interview with The Related Press, de Leeuw was unapologetic.
“I’m not offended to be hated by the Donald Trump motion. I’m not sorry. That is the best factor to do,” she mentioned.
The city stood by the work, with its deputy mayor answerable for cultural affairs, Frédéric Lefebvre, telling broadcaster France 3 that “it’s a really sturdy and highly effective political message.”
Since returning to the White Home amid anti-immigration sentiment, Trump has launched an unprecedented marketing campaign that has pushed the bounds of government energy and clashed with federal judges making an attempt to restrain him. Folks from varied international locations have been deported to distant and unrelated locations like South Sudan and the small African nation of Eswatini.
Immigration is one in every of Trump’s strongest points in public polling within the U.S.
The mural in Roubaix is a part of an city avenue tradition competition backed by the city. Roubaix is likely one of the poorest cities in France. It was economically devastated by the collapse for the reason that Nineteen Seventies of its once-flourishing textile trade that used to draw migrant employees from elsewhere in Europe, north Africa and past.
