We all know the pictures of beached whales around the globe, and sometimes crowds of people help them find their way back in the ocean. It makes sense to push them back to the waters, but the story in the painting is a different one:
Here, however, this painting shows the beached bodies of shipwrecked refugees along the southern Mediterranean shorelines. Many died already before reaching their “European paradise,” and the ones who survived are mostly traumatized. There are no visible faces among the victims. They cannot be identified as individuals easily anymore. They do not reflect any personality; they are just cadavers. Furthermore, they stand for many more. It seems to be just a section of an endless shoreline.
They once were poorly educated and stayed without any perspectives at home. It is easy to become influenced; they become misguided and just followed the rumors in the media about a better life somewhere far away. Obviously, there was no one who had ever cared for them at home since childhood. The reason for their escape seems to touch only a few in Europe, though we have stolen most of their buried natural resources. In Europe, they are welcomed only by gravediggers who thank them for their cooperation, but nobody in Europe is willing to give any help in return. But within this century, some low-land Europeans might become the next refugees themselves because of their self-made climate crisis.