Plus Ultra (Latin for "further beyond, surpassing one’s limits") was the motto of Charles V, set in contrast to the mythical Non plus ultra of Hercules, which marked the impassable boundary beyond the Pillars. The motto expressed an ideology of imperial expansion, discovery, and the transcendence of human limits, and it was widely adopted in the iconography of his empire.

Fast forward to the 21st century, a curious link between past and present emerges in an image published by Donald Trump in 2017 on the occasion of his inauguration. The photograph was taken at his Mar-a-Lago residence, where the President of the United States appears in a room decorated with tiles bearing the motto Plus Ultra and a statue of an eagle—creating a striking aesthetic resonance with the imperial symbols of Charles V.

Through a critical reinterpretation that intertwines history, philosophy, and pop culture, I tried to deconstruct this drive toward the “beyond.” What particularly caught my attention was a striking counter-narrative: the historical episode of the 1552 Siege of Metz, in which the city’s defenders mocked Charles V with a banner reading Non Ultra Metas (“not beyond Metz” and “not beyond limits”), accompanied by an image of the imperial eagle chained between the pillars.

This story—from Non Plus Ultra, to Plus Ultra, to Non Ultra Metas—is narrated by the personification of History itself, seen only through a mirror that shows us their back as they rehearse the play in an empty theater.