Galschiøt's character: "Survival of the fattest"

Galschiøt's figure 'Survival of the fattest' came to the city in 2006. But it turned out to be necessary to make some changes so that the sculpture could cope with the weather in West Jutland - so in the summer of 2007 the figure finally came into place at the harbour.

The 3,5 meter tall sculpture is a caricature depicting a giant western-looking woman sitting on the back of a starving African man. He is threatened not only by his own hunger but also by the woman's physical abundance.

The woman holds a scale to emphasize that there is something obviously wrong with the global distribution. Jens Galschiøts sculpture is a comment on the distortion of world trade, where the privileged part of the world with tariffs and subsidies keeps the developing countries out.

- I demonstrate neither for nor against the EU but to get some other values ​​into the debate, Jens Galschiøt emphasizes and adds: 

- It is not only a pity for the poor who die of hunger. It's a shame for us too. It does matter to us to look at these contradictions. We're being blunted. With this figure, I want to imprint an image in the minds of people so that they think: shut up, this is how the world is. And see themselves as part of that issue.

Galschiøt has a clear justification for why the sculpture looks the way it does. The world has become too small to accommodate the enormous contradictions:

- On the one hand, here in the northern part of the globe we have problems with eating too much and living too fat. On the other side of the globe, people are dying of hunger. That is why there are refugee flows and terrorism. In trying to shield ourselves from the problems of the third world, we are renouncing our values ​​of democracy and civilization, he says.

Updated by: VisitVesterhavet | turist@visitvesterhavet.dk