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Licence to Spill – FULL REPORT - LIBERATE TATE COMMUNIQUE #2

Felix Gonzales | 30.06.2010 05:46 | Climate Chaos | Culture | Ecology

It was us and it was art!

Last night (28 June), as the Tate celebrated 20 years of BP ‘support’ for British Art with a Summer Party, Liberate Tate disrupted the proceedings inside and out by pouring hundreds of litres of ‘oil’(molasses) and scattering thousands of feathers as the UK’s celebrity glitterati watched on in fascination.

Anti BP early action
Anti BP early action

Liberate Tate
Liberate Tate

Barrels are being prepared
Barrels are being prepared

The lids come off
The lids come off

The walk begins
The walk begins

Barrel being poured onto the entrance
Barrel being poured onto the entrance

Tate's logo splashed
Tate's logo splashed

Barrels scattered on the floor
Barrels scattered on the floor

The protestors who performed the action inside the Tate
The protestors who performed the action inside the Tate

Spills from the skirts
Spills from the skirts

Preparing to clear up the spill
Preparing to clear up the spill

Lets use our shoes to clean the spill
Lets use our shoes to clean the spill

The cleanup outside begins
The cleanup outside begins

Sucking up the spill
Sucking up the spill


Full Video Report  http://www.youandifilms.com/2010/06/licence-to-spill-full-report/

Sipping Pimms and gobbling canapés many of the guests expressed confusion at whether these striking actions were ‘art’ or not. Despite inaccurate reporting in various media outlets, Liberate Tate would like to claim full responsibility for these acts of creative disobedience as art – art that refuses to pretend to do politics but is politics, art that makes transforming the world a beautiful adventure.

The Tate Summer Party had been planned to be in the museum gardens and involve speeches from BP executives. However, due to the rumours of disruption, Tate was forced to hold the entire event inside the museum and no speeches were made.

As the evening sun baked down on the stone courtyard of Tate Britain and members of the cultural and corporate elite made their way into the party, 13 figures dressed in black, their faces veiled, appeared from around the corner. In a mournful procession the art-activists approached the entrance carrying large barrels branded with the BP logo. Dozens of photographers and TV cameras swarmed and a moment of tense silence enveloped the area. Something was going to happen.

Then in a perfectly choreographed moment, the front phalanx poured hundreds of litres of the black liquid all over the entrance, whilst others threw feathers into the air which gently drifted down into the huge sticky black pools. The sombre figures walked calmly away, disappearing into the city, as the security redirected the guests to another entrance as the cleanup operation began.

Meanwhile, despite the heavy security at the door, two Liberate Tate art-activists managed to infiltrate the party wearing large floral bouffant dresses underneath which were concealed large sacks filled with the oily molasses. Calling themselves Toni Hayward and Bobbi Dudley, they began their performance in the crowded central gallery. At first drips began to fall from their handbags. “Oh, I seem to have a leak” whispered one of them to the lined up waiters dressed in brilliant white, who kindly provided napkins to stem the spill.

Soon the sacks under their dresses burst releasing tens of litres of ‘oil’ across the shiny parquet floor. As a crowd formed around them, the two donned BP branded ponchos and scrambled on all fours trying to clean up the mess using their high heel shoes to pour the slick back into their handbags, but to no avail. “Compared to the size of the gallery this is a tiny spill, a drop in the ocean,” they apologised to the viewers, “we’ll definitely have it cleaned up by, say, August”.

The polite crowd that had formed continued to watch appreciatively for another 20 minutes, amidst a sea of camera-phones. Many began debating among themselves whether this was art or not (“I think it is. I like it”), whether Tate had organised it, and what their personal aesthetic reactions to it were (“If I had seen this outside, I think I would have felt as I do seeing it… inside”). More than one invited artist openly described this to their fellow drinkers as the most sophisticated work in the room.

LIBERATE TATE

Liberate Tate, is a network dedicated to taking creative disobedience against the Tate until it drops its oil company funding. The 28 June art activist performances follow on from last month’s disruption of Tate Modern’s 10th Birthday celebrations by hanging dead fish and birds from dozens of giant black helium balloons.

The network was founded during a workshop in January 2010 on art and activism, commissioned by Tate. When Tate curators tried to censor the workshop from making interventions against Tate sponsors, the incensed participants decided to continue their work together beyond the workshop and set up Liberate Tate.

www.twitter.com/liberatetate

Images: www.immoklink.com/BP-Tate/index.html

www.youandifilms.com/2010/06/license-to-spill/

See also LIBERATE TATE COMMUNIQUE 1  http://bit.ly/9RFfxJ (MAY 2010)

Full Video Report  http://www.youandifilms.com/2010/06/licence-to-spill-full-report/

Felix Gonzales
- e-mail: felix@youandifilms.com
- Homepage: http://www.youandifilms.com

Comments

Display the following 3 comments

  1. Nice idea (in theory) but... — lolwob
  2. Good stuff! — Oily
  3. Cleaners were with us ! — JJ
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