When I first saw the painting online, it provoked me in a certain way. Such an explicit glorification of Christian Drosten seemed inappropriate to me - at a time when I have personally tried to avoid too clear a commitment to individual persons and positions. But the reference to the group show was simply too obvious and the aesthetic and artistic quality out of question. So I spoke to Anselm Hirschhäuser and learned that the motivation for the painting was the wish to say thank you. Even though Dr Drosten is not a particularly important figure for me, I find a thank-you a positive gesture - one that I can stand behind regardless of any worldview standpoint. I also find it brave of Anselm Hirschhäuser to take such a clear position. Especially in a context - the internet - in which Dr Drosten is subject to much criticism, it is courageous to make such an artistic statement. Risky art is far too rare - so for me, this painting stands for the courage to make a clear statement and to make oneself vulnerable.
What surprised me was Anselm's statement that he portrayed Dr Drosten as somewhat cringing because politics didn't listen to him. The economy, capitalism rules the world - which is why Dr Drosten could not get his way with his demands. Until then, I knew the argument the other way round: since capitalism rules, the big companies get billions, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. Dr Drosten has accelerated and forced this development in conjunction with politics and the economy. Dr Drosten is thus becoming an identification figure for either one side or the other. In both cases, however, it is capitalism, “the economy”, that is identified as the cause of the problems. Dr Drosten is sometimes capitalism's henchman, sometimes its victim.
