Eight black-veiled protesters disrupted Tate Museum’s BP party by dunking five gallons of molasses on the museum’s stone steps, sprinkling it with feathers and leaving the “oil spill” for the immigrant cleaning crew to clean up.
“What do we want? Liberate Tate! When do we want it? Now!” the Liberate Tate group chanted. The Tate Museum party was celebrating two decades of BP sponsorship. BP cashes out $1.5 million to Britain’s cultural institutions, chump change compared to billions made on oil and owed to oiled Americans.
Leaving a disgusting sticky swamp for the cleaning crew to scrub out of overpriced Portland stone is ironic and cruel. But the on-site responses by museum’s heads and patrons are even more stupid:
I’m not particularly pro BP, but I am pro BP’s art sponsorship.” “There is no such thing as clean money.” “What about working conditions in Colombia? Why should we be responsible for what happens over there?
Perhaps not entirely eloquent in presentation (Kronos Quartet song in the video = bombastic sentimentality fail), the action does have a point and did it make a very necessary splash in the international media. It would be nice if they helped with the clean up though. Liberate Tate!
UPDATE: More video.
I know this isn't going to make me very popular around here, and most likley not with you Marina, but I'm not exactly sure how important corporate sponsorship is to creating and displaying art.
@cr
I guess my "everyone is stupid but me" approach wasn't clear enough on this. To clarify: While corporate sponsorship can come in handy for public art institutions, it isn't at all necessary to make art. In this case, it's openly shitty for the museum to display such public apathy and throw parties for BP and take their money.
I'm very glad their swanky party got ruined, I just feel bad for the people who have to mop up molasses. It's a hypocrisy on Liberate Tate's part, but a mild one if you look at the big picture.
Actually, the pressure on galleries and museums to have corporate sponsorship is enormous, in fact, there is no other choice. The "Tax Payer" and the Government as well as the funding bodies, all demand that some sector of the public "invest" in cultural programs and institutions. All you people with your family values and requirement that the museum does programming for youth and children and family values and expensive publications and flawless service to the public around the clock and mainstream advertising, have made this imperative. This action by wanna be performance artists is the lowest level of intervention one can think of. The only thing that's changed for the better is that someone in a public forum noticed that someone is going to have to clean up their mess.
"t’s openly shitty for the museum to display such public apathy and throw parties for BP and take their money."
Agreed Marina.
"I just feel bad for the people who have to mop up molasses."
Well, protest these days has become all about destroying other people's stuff. And wasting stuff.
Hey BC, as Liberate Tate say: "Every day Tate scrubs clean BP’s public image with the detergent of cool progressive art." The cleanup was obviously part of the performance. A lot of Tate staff love what Liberate Tate are doing as they do not have a voice, especially rank and file workers. Many are deeply shamed and angry that their employer is supporting BP whilst professing to go green.
Marina/cr The cleaners said they fully supported Liberate Tate and they did not mind clearing up as they agreed with the cause.
Since these last two comments are both from Liberate Tate, I'm not 100% sure I can take your word on that, but if you have any sort of link for me regarding the cleaning crew's reaction, I would definitely check it out.