PERFORMANCE:
SORRY goes to Aberdeen!
(STOPY BY! SUNDAY THE 27TH OF JULY!)
USAD United States Apologies Desk
William Wallace Monument
Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
12:00noon July 25th & 27TH, 2025
On Friday, July 25th and Sunday, July 25th, 2025, American-born, Edinburgh-based artist and activist Joseph DeLappe will perform SORRY, a public art intervention in Aberdeen that sees him setting up the USAD (United States Apologies Desk) to engage passersby in dialogue and to offer his apologies, as an American, for many of the USA’s failings, on this, President Donald Trump’s arrival day in Scotland.
Beginning at 12:00noon (BST) near the William Wallace monument, adjacent to the Union Terrace Gardens in Aberdeen, DeLappe will sit at a small desk adorned with a cotton American flag, altered by hand-sewn woollen letters to read ‘SORRY’. A placard on the desk reads ‘USAD – United States Apologies Desk’, playfully framing the action as an unofficial diplomatic mission. An empty chair opposite DeLappe invites passers-by to sit, talk, and reflect. Each participant will receive a hand-signed apology card, including a personal pledge from DeLappe that he will continue to resist Donald Trump and all forms of fascist ideology through civic and creative engagement.
“This performance is an act of public atonement.” says DeLappe. “As President Donald Trump, arrives in Scotland, I want to remind folks that it is possible to speak plainly, and humbly, as an American. To make an apology as one American citizen – to highlight all the damage the USA is inflicting upon the world, and to show that Trump’s regime and actions are not condoned by this American, and many millions of my fellow citizens. I do this to move beyond feelings of helplessness and dread while also extending an invitation to consider what creative resistance to the Trump regime can look like.”
Over the course of the afternoon, DeLappe will sit and invite passersby to join him in discussion: unscripted acts of connection, resistance, and atonement. SORRY is a continuation of DeLappe’s internationally-recognized practice of creative activism. His politically-charged public interventions transform spaces of everyday life into platforms for truth, humility, and civic action. The first instance of SORRY took place on the 4th of July, 2025, at the Mound in the centre of Edinburgh – reflections on this event can be found on DeLappe’s blog here.
Joseph DeLappe is a Scottish-based artist, activist and the Professor of Games and Tactical Media at Abertay University, Dundee.
NEW PUBLICATIONS:
Fotoludica. Fotografia e videogiochi tra arte e documentazione Edited by/A cura di: Matteo Bittanti e Marco De Mutiis co-authored a chapter for this book about photography in videogames with Dr. Laura Leuzzi, “Head Shot! Artefacts of Interventionist Play: Joseph DeLappe’s Extended Screenshots”, this is only available in Italian to date.
Step Into the Fray: Navigating Mixed Realities at the Intersection of Walking, Video Games, Art, and Activism is included in an ASAP Review Journal special volume “The Art of Walking”, edited by Adair Rounthwaite & Judith Rodenbeck has been published this past week.
Me and My Predator(s): Tactical Remembrance and Critical Atonement, co-written with Dr. Laura Leuzzi was published in the book “Drone Aesthetics War, Culture, Ecology” edited by Beryl Pong and Michael Richardson via Open Humanities Press. You can download a free PDF of the book or buy a printed copy at the link.