Marie Wolf / Cicero magazine / Le magazine Cicero – la finale a commencé

Marie Wolf was commissioned to illustrate an article about Germany’s divided federal government and its inability to implement necessary reforms for the February issue of Cicero magazine. In his text, Carsten Korfmacher examines how global geopolitical shifts are increasingly putting Germany under pressure – from the hegemonic ambitions of the Trump administration to the accelerating race in AI and robotics, while the country’s economic situation tightens and reforms (especially to the pension system) remain contested and unresolved.
For the article’s key themes, Marie developed distinct visual metaphors: the Greenland topic appears as a Mount Rushmore adaptation carved into glacial ice: showing faces from the Trump administration instead of the founding fathers while, in the foreground, a puzzled Inuit in a kayak confronts a massive U.S. oil tanker. The German government’s uncertainty over how to save the patient Germany is depicted as a surgical scene, viewed through an open wound in the geographic shape of Germany.
The three full-page illustrations were created within one week.

Art Director: Viola Schmieskors