A last gasp from arty luvvies in the GRaun. Irresistible stuff as ever.
First this
Cultural organisations in the UK could face a two-year artistic hiatus triggered by Brexit in which they become more inward looking and less international, according to a report on the consequences of leaving the EU....The Arts After Brexit study by the University of Manchester predicts that UK cultural organisations will be less likely to commission European artists due to uncertainty over any Brexit deal and possible Covid-19 restrictions.
There's even this old chestnut:
The report also predicted that Brexit-voting towns in England would take the hardest arts hit once Britain leaves Europe, with millions in cultural funding from the EU no longer flowing to regional institutions.
Regional control over funding not the European elite -- the horror! Great art like this will no longer be funded:
A dancer performs Into The Mountain, produced and commissioned by the Scottish Sculpture Workshop, one of the UK beneficiaries of Creative Europe funding last year. Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian
The Graun links to this piece from 2019 to remind us what we have lost:
Marina Abramović, Elmgreen & Dragset and Bernard-Henri Lévy are just some of the big names involved in United Artists for Europe. Here’s why they’re taking a stand
Bernard Levy wanted to puff his play -- sorry, try to warn us just one last time:
I will vote for Macron and, were I British, I would vote for the Liberal Democrats since they are the only party fighting to remain – I will be in Britain to give a special performance of my one-man play, Last Exit Before Brexit (now Looking For Europe)...One thing I will talk about in my play is the Irish Question. Achieving peace in Ireland has been the greatest achievement of the EU...Nigel Farage will know soon enough what kind of world he desires. It will be one of unemployment for you, of insularity, a little England, a corpse...The Italians invented fascism nearly 100 year ago, the Spanish lived under it for many years, France and Germany were destroyed by it. Now? You may well experience it.
Abramovic says:
Camus said: “If there is any man who has no right to solitude, it is the artist. Art cannot be a monologue.” I like this. I don’t care for the idea of a solipsistic artist alone in nature, or depressed and drinking himself to death...we have to fight against this nightmare of Brexit. You really have a problem Britain, my God!...I am an artist who believes in changing the world. I have chosen a piece to be auctioned for the United Artists of Europe initiative....I am an artist who believes in changing the world. I have chosen a piece to be auctioned for the United Artists of Europe initiative.
Hang on a minute...auction? Elmgree and Dragset [who they?] offered practical help:
Why is there an EU flag on our Anger Management punchbag? Because it would be ideal if Brexit backers could take out some of their anger on something other than a whole nation. They should each have a punchbag and go crazy on it at home. Then afterwards, they might be more balanced and nuanced in political debates.... It was a campaign based on lies influenced by years of this scapegoating.
Right now, one of the Tory government’s arguments for backing Brexit is that they want more deregulation, which means being able to import chemical-infested food from the US and getting rid of regulations that protect human rights and labour conditions.
You as a citizen – artist or not – [big of them to let us take part!] have an obligation to be engaged because the outcome will shape generations to come. We think artworks have a role in the Brexit debate because they speak in a different language, one that can hit you where a politician’s words or a newspaper article cannot.
A certain R. Arad writes:
I was born in Tel Aviv, but I live and work in Europe. I don’t like nationalities. I like cities and people. I don’t like borders – and Brexit is all about borders....I love it when my students return from working in Europe all fired up with new ideas. This won’t happen if they find it more difficult to travel.
Another one imagining there will be a large (fire)wall round the UK when we leave. And how novel -- an Israeli who doesn't like borders! I bet he's popular back home.
For this auction, I chose to donate a chair. It’s not just a chair but a sculpture, a negative impression of an invisible sitter, an everyman. The sitter could be Twiggy or Pavarotti. It’s named after my friend Antony Gormley, but spelled differently: Rod Gomli. When no one’s sitting on it, it just tilts up and points at the sky. I’ll miss it when it’s gone. But it will free some space in the studio, a negative of its presence.
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