Original drawing from the Madness™ & Method®-Cycle // [Wahnsinn™ und Methode®-Zyklus]
The »Raging Despot« I made during the time when Erdogan started to prosecute approximately one thousand people in Germany for lèse-majesté and for making fun of him in general – sometimes just for writing a comment on Facebook. The »Mimimi«-character from the Muppet Show exemplifies people constantly moaning and complaining about all the small things which are of no significance – for example a president complaining about a handful of comedians and cartoonists who are making fun of him. Ironically, after the biggest lawsuit against the comedian Jan Böhmermann, the lèse-majesté-paragraph in German law has been renounced. So even though Erdogan aimed to take influence on the German cultural society, in the end he helped making this culture even more free.
In the drawing the figure itself has five arms to illustrate how the separation of power is now all under one roof: the legislative, the executive and the judiciary as well as the press and the public opinion. The hand gestures of the figure serve as a reminder of the secret hand-sign of the Grey Wolves, an underground movement supporting Erdogan with the aim of undermining democracy. The hand-sign on the right hand side of the illustration is not from the Grey Wolves of course. The character is standing on only one leg which resembles a wolf’s claw. The character’s eyes »B« and the »A« spewed from its mouth should be read together with the two »M« letters forming the word »BAMM«. And the »MMMM« sequence at the bottom of the illustration is to be read as additional »Mimimis«.
