Wads and wads of bills, partly burnt, lean against the walls. A video, which quickly went viral on Twitter, shows this scene, when one of the vice-presidents of the European Parliament was imprisoned in Brussels on suspicion of corruption involving Qatar, we learned on Sunday December 11. According to a Belgian judicial source, “bags of banknotes” were discovered in the apartment of the elected Greek socialist, Eva Kailli.
“Bags of money were found at Eva Kaili’s home”, explains the Internet user in his tweet, shared nearly 1,200 times. “Here are the attics of all the rottenness that squanders France! “, is indignant a person, when another wonders:” How to believe Brussels and these people whom one does not know! What else are we going to discover? “.
FAKE OFF
This video has nothing to do with the corruption case in the European Parliament involving Qatar, as confirmed by a reverse image search. And as the Internet user, author of the tweet, also denied in another post (shared 19 times), a few hours later, referring to having broadcast the video in the name of humor.
It is actually a sculpture, made by Alejandro Monge. The Spanish artist hand painted fake banknotes in resin, part of which was burned. baptized European Dream, the work was exhibited in 2018 at the Madrid Contemporary Art Fair. In a daily interview Heraldo in February 2018, he explained that he wanted to “represent the value of work”.
A video already diverted in 2019 in Russia or Cameroon
“Money is the main representation of the value of the working hours of the human being, a contemporary icon, the god of the consumer society, he underlined. I wanted to play with this concept. In the same vein, the artist explored this theme of the relationship to money in several of his works between 2016 and 2019, in Paradise Objects Where American Dreamas can be seen in his website.
And this is not the first time that the video showing his work has been hijacked. In early 2019, it had been used in cases of embezzlement or criminal activities involving politicians in Russia, Cameroon or Haiti, as analyzed AFP Factual Where France 24 Observers. On his Instagram account, the artist had also shared the video and wondered about the mysteries of virality.