"The death of the queen bee", Seídenweberhaus, Krefeld by Julia Bethke from Krefeld as part of the "Silk City Gallery" and the Krefeld change of perspective under the artistic direction of Fredda Wouters from Kevelaer.

Julia is a trained stage painter. Her work seems very bizarre at first glance, the bald man with the dead eyes who holds the dead queen bee in his arms! The whole thing is loosened up by the surrounding honeycombs and flying bees (which can be found as a common denominator on many works).

Julia was very busy with the honeycombs!The honeycomb stands for the shape of the silk weaver's house, which, as I have just learned, is intended to underline the ties between the city of Krefeld and the chemical industry here in Krefeld (the so-called benzene ring) Weedkiller related to glyphosate, which was originally produced by Monsanto, which, as is well known, was taken over by Bayer in 2018. 

The fact is that the patents have expired since 2000, and most of them now come from China. And unfortunately there are few alternatives! The same is of course also true of the neonicotinoid insecticides.