Culture Beyond Oil Arts Cut to the Heart of Society // Bp & Shell Under the Lens // Ethical Funding: the Coming Change // Anything but Crude

Home , Beyond Oil, BP Portrait Award, Julian Stallabrass

Not if but when CULTURE BEYOND OIL ARTS CUT TO THE HEART OF SOCIETY // BP & SHELL UNDER THE LENS // ETHICAL FUNDING: THE COMING CHANGE // ANYTHING BUT CRUDE – ARTISTS SPEAK OUT //

CULTURE BEYOND OIL 1 2 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 3 Not if but when CONTENTS CULTURE BEYOND OIL

EDITORIAL GROUP 8-13 32-37 60-65 Jo Clarke, Mel Evans, Hayley Newman, A Social Licence Arts Cut To The Ai Weiwei, Ali Ferzat Kevin Smith, Glen Tarman To Operate Heart Of Society & Ahmed Bassiouny DESIGN Sara Nilsson James Marriott from Philip Goff from Art Uncut Mel Evans from Platform [email protected] Platform on why BP needs argues that government considers the political plight Tate much more than Tate A BIG THANK YOU TO ALL funding is needed to protect of three artists from China, CONTRIBUTORS needs BP. the integrity of public arts Syria and Egypt. Anthony Burrill, He He – Helen Evans and Heiko Hansen, Richard Houguez, institutions. Pedro Inoue, Lisa Isfits, Ben Jones, Chris Jordan, Ruppe Koselleck, Reverend Billy and the Church of Earthalujah, Banksy, 14-19 66-85 Conrad Atkinson, Dave Beech, Salette What’s Wrong With Oil 38-43 Visions Of Culture Gressett, John Hartley, Wallace Heim, Matthew Herbert, The Institute for the Sponsorship Anyway? Profiling BP & Shell Beyond Oil Art and Practice of Dissent at Home, Members of art collective Raoul Martinez, Bridget McKenzie, Sai Platform on the oil Artists and writers on all that MuRai, Bob and Roberta Smith, Julian Liberate Tate respond to companies everyone loves is possible without oil. Stallabrass, Charles Thomson, Cecilia criticisms of the argument Wee, Richard Wilson, Kenny Young, to hate, both sponsors of Tim Etchells, Phillip Goff, John Jordan, that lies within their London’s cultural scene. Antonia Juhasz, Melina Laboucan- performance interventions. Massimo, James Marriott, Omar Robert 86-87 Hamilton, Mike Roberts, Jane Trowell, Immo Klink, Amy Scaife, Jeffrey 44-53 About Us Blackler, Sophie Molins, Ben Amunwa, Platform, Art Not Oil Gareth Evans, Mika Minio-Paluello, 23 Voices From Outside Daniel Beltrá, Matt Vis, Tony Campbell, and Liberate Tate. Hannah Fair, Frederika Whitehead, The Magic Number The Gallery Hannah Davey, Martin LeSanto-Smith, Sokari Douglas Camp, Tar Sands Art, Platform calls for full A fisherman, a writer, Jiri Rezac, Bryan Parras, Joshua Gilbert, public disclosure on how a film-maker and Ali Ferzat, the Bassiouny family, the BACK COVER ABOVE 88-89 much BP sponsorship of the an indigenous rights Jonathan Ferrara Gallery and the Free Tate à Tate audio tour advert art by Anthony Burrill. Oil What Next Word Centre. Richard Houguez. & Water Do Not Mix, Tate is worth. campaigner, on how BP October 2010. Screen Act to end Tate oil COVER IMAGE KEEP IN TOUCH WITH THE print made with oil has affected their lives. Liberate Tate, Human ONGOING STORY from the Gulf of sponsorship. Cost, 2011. Performance, Mailing list Mexico. (see p. 90 for Tate Britain, a [email protected] video link) 26-31 durational performance (subject heading: Mailing List) 54-59 marking the anniversary Photo Ethical Funding And of the Gulf of Mexico Twitter Happiness Brussels A Timeline Of Change A Question Of 21st catastrophe. (see p. 90 @LiberateTate for video link) @PlatformLondon Oil & Water Do Not Mix is a project Jane Trowell from Platform Century Leadership And Photo: Amy Scaife by Happiness Brussels designed by looks at how the zeitgeist Governance Facebook Anthony Burrill. The group collected OPENING SPREAD 'End oil-sponsorship of the arts' sandy oil off the beaches of Grand on ethics, the arts and oil An analysis of decision- Chris Jordan, Oil Barrels, 2008 (part Facebook page Isle, Louisiana, which Burrill used to money has changed over making responsibility at of Running the Numbers: An American screenprint 200 limited edition posters Self-Portrait). Black and white digital PRINT in the wake of the BP Gulf of Mexico recent decades. Tate by Glen Tarman from print Oil Barrels depicts 28,000 42-gallon Printed using vegetable based spill. The €150 prints sold out rapidly Liberate Tate. Tate Board barrels; the amount of oil consumed in inks on recycled paper. and all proceeds were donated to the member Bob and Roberta the United States every two minutes. ISBN: 978-0-9567365-3-6 Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana. Smith also speaks on the CLOSING SPREAD Published in the UK December 2011 by issues of oil sponsorship and Pedro Inoue, Seven Sisters, 2007. Art Not Oil, Liberate Tate and Platform. Lambada print. Seven Sisters is a activism. decorated hell, creating a nirvana made This publication has been made of nightmares, a visual betrayal that possible through the generous support blurs the line between beauty and terror. of the Lipman-Miliband Trust and Artists Project Earth.

4 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 5 Art At The Service Of Life

Change happens when what we as much oil out of the ground as quickly as possible. In fact oil sponsorship of the arts is know and what we feel becomes an act of anaesthesia, something that numbs inseparable, when it becomes im- us, stops us perceiving the reality of fossil fuel extraction. It is the opposite of an aesthetic act, possible to know something in since aesthetics should enable us to feel the the abstract: our emotions begin world, to sense what it truly happening deep to boil over into action. within our guts. The call to end oil sponsorship of the arts is not without precedent. Sponsorship shifts any of us know that civilization cannot have occurred on numerous occasions accord- continue to burn fossil fuels indefi- ing to changing social norms and contexts. A nitely, and we sense that the future is M few decades ago, many of the same cultural not what it used to be: it has become a fright- institutions were receiving tobacco money – ening prospect rather than the promise our the creativity of art provided a great decoy to parents made to us. Yet what do we do about the devastating consequences of cancer – yet it? Where can we make the changes so urgent- now tobacco logos are absent from the cultural ly needed? Culture Beyond Oil is the result of a sphere. Smoking is simply not “cool” enough unique collaboration between artists and activ- anymore. The major cultural shift over tobacco therefore normal to continue to burn fossil fu- Liberate Tate, Licence To Spill, June 2010. ists, researchers and critics, thinkers and feel- els subtly seeps into our imaginations, fixing Performance, Tate Britain, London. Molasses, rubble sacks, sponsorship is now widely accepted as an ap- strap-on harnesses, floral dresses. Performance artists Toni ers, theorists and doers. It reveals how we can the image of a certain kind of culture, a certain propriate response, and was in part due to the [Hayward] and Bobbi [Dudley] of Liberate Tate spilled oil transform our perception of a society where oil push given by anti-smoking campaign groups. kind of destructive behaviour. in the Duveen Galleries during the 2010 Tate Summer addiction is inevitable into a new way of imag- Party “celebrating” 20 years of BP sponsorship. Photo: Yet despite widespread public concern about There is a growing sense of unease within ining our world beyond this deathly lifeblood. Immo Klink the dramatic threat of climate change, oil mon- the cultural sector about the omnipresent oil It shows us that within the worlds of arts and ey is still found greasing the wheels of so many company logos with the nation’s most high culture, the realm which is at the root of so of our cultural institutions. The idea that it is profile galleries, and this publication brings many of our perceptions of the together some of the responses of artists and world, small acts can have ex- activists to the debate. It asks not if but when tensive effects. will oil be perceived as a substance as dirty and Cultural institutions pro- deadly to the health of our society and ecosys- vide the social approval which The best way to look tems as cigarettes are now seen to be for the companies like Shell and BP health of our bodies. It challenges us to have need to cover up the harmful at it is not that the the collective courage to flush oil from our cul- impacts of their practices. In tural institutions and thence from our culture. fact the best way to look at it Culture Beyond Oil has been co-published by is not that the oil companies oil companies are art collective Liberate Tate, arts and research are supporting the arts, but organisation Platform and activist group Art that the arts are supporting supporting the arts, Not Oil. Together with the many others who their lie – that they care about have contributed to this publication, we are anything other than pumping beginning to imagine a culture beyond oil, one but that the arts are where art is put back into the service of life. supporting their lie

6 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 7 A SOCIAL LICENCE TO OPERATE JAMES MARRIOTT FROM PLATFORM CONSIDERS THE BENEFITS OF ARTS SPONSORSHIP FROM A PR PERSPECTIVE. HOW OIL COMPANIES USE SPONSORSHIP TO CONSTRUCT ‘A SOCIAL LICENSE TO OPERATE’, WHO THESE PR STRATEGIES ARE REALLY TRYING TO INFLUENCE AND WHY BP NEEDS TATE MUCH MORE THAN TATE NEEDS BP.

8 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 9 An oil corporation such as BP combines the mindsets of an engineering that assisted the company in company and a bank. It constantly faces the practical challenges of extracting, persuading President Obama “BP is a strong and viable transporting and processing oil and gas, shifting the geology of distant lands to say on TV: “BP is a strong and viable company and it is company and it is in all our to the cars and turbines of its customers. in all our interests that it stays that way”.1 interests that it stays that way” To construct and maintain this support, BP focuses on President Obama building a positive image in the eyes of politicians, diplomats, civil servants, journalists, academics, NGOs and cultural commentators. These groups ike all engineering problems, these challenges are Previous spread: approached in the belief that ultimately they can be HeHe, Is There A Horizon On The are known as the ‘special publics’ or ‘clients’ in the public solved. The point of solving them is to make money, Deepwater?, March 2011. relations industry. The corporations often contract external A miniature BP Macondo oil spill profit on invested capital. PR companies to carry out this work, such as Fishburn in a swimming pool. Performance, Hedges, who won an industry award for the Special Publics LThe construction of an offshore platform is one of the most Jesus Green Lido, Cambridge. expensive projects on earth in the 21st century. Usually, it HeHe are Helen Evans and Heiko Engagement Programme that it created for Shell in 2009: can only offer a high return on capital if oil production is Hansen. (See page 90 for video “Our Special Publics Engagement Programme is a link) Photo: HeHe maintained over two or three decades. The maintenance of key element of our corporate communications mix and is this production is usually threatened by social and political fundamental to sustaining a positive view of Shell among key shifts in the countries of extraction. Any such threat to decision makers and influencers around the world. And we production – or the perception that that threat might exist – know it works – almost three quarters of those that come into can immediately undermine the profitability of a corporation. contact with Shell through our partnerships around the world In May 2010 BP’s share value was almost halved by the go away with an improved view of our company. Fishburn Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, not Hedges has been central to that work for a long time – and because of the potential costs of the oil spill clean up, but Right and on p. 13: this award is well-deserved recognition for the excellent job Liberate Tate, Licence To Spill, that they do.”2 because investors were concerned that the company’s future June 2010. Performance, Tate prospects in the US were being undermined by the collapse Britain, London. Two oil spills were of support in Washington and in the media. beautifully created by Liberate Tate To guard against any such threat to the company’s value, during their uninvited performance at the 2010 Tate Summer Party BP works constantly to engineer its ‘social licence to operate’. “celebrating” 20 years of BP’s This is a term widely used in business and government sponsorship during the Deepwater circles and usually applies to the process of engendering Horizon disaster. (See page 90 for support for a company’s activities in the communities who video link) Photo: Immo Klink live close to their factories, oil wells, etc. However it can help us understand how corporations construct public support in states far from those places of extraction or manufacture – for example how BP builds support in London. The financial drive for international oil companies to continually increase the amount of oil and gas they extract often leads them to places of extraction that are high risk, either technically, as in deepwater offshore, or politically, as in Libya. The UK government can be of great assistance to the likes of BP in guarding against these risks. The Labour government assisted BP in gaining access to oilfields in Gaddhafi’s Libya, the Conservative/Liberal Democrat coalition government will no doubt be assisting BP in gaining access to oilfields in post-Gaddhafi Libya. In the summer of 2010, a large swathe of the British political establishment called on the White House to ‘stop bashing BP’ – support

10 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 11 “You don’t abandon your friends because they have what we consider to be a temporary difficulty” Nicholas Serota

Building a supportive attitude within the ‘special publics’ can be done through direct engagement and dialogue, through advertising, and through financial support – funding academic posts at universities, creating programmes in schools, financing sports such as the 2012 Olympics, or sponsoring culture. Each of these actions is helpful in assisting the construction of the social license to operate, as well as boosting employee morale and polishing the company’s brand, as pointed out by Rena De Sisto, global arts and culture executive at Bank of America Merrill Lynch (that contributes $40m a year to the arts worldwide): “There are plenty of big corporations that do not support the arts, because they labour under the misapprehension that they are something extra, instead of a key marketing tool. If more [of them] knew how effective the arts can be in terms of employee morale, client outreach and burnishing your brand, they would be surprised and delighted.”3 This support is not provided as a form of philanthropy, but as an integral part of engineering the social and political circumstances that will best ensure the long-term security of those investments in oil and gas projects. Approached as an engineering challenge, the corporation tends to see all opposition to its activities as solvable with the appropriate time, capital and techniques. The sponsorship of institutions such as Tate can be understood as just one of these tactics to ensure the security of assets and the return on investments. The success of this strategy is illustrated by the remark of Nicholas Serota, Director of Tate, in the Summer of 2010, that: “You don’t abandon your friends because they have what we consider to be a temporary difficulty”.4 BP had just created one of the worst spills in the history of the oil industry, and desperately need the support of allies to shore up its position. The public endorsement of arguably the most senior figure in the British cultural sector was of immense value in building support in the political establishment.

12 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 13 activities through which that company makes profit. their own lives, but they have almost no control Accepting sponsorship from a corporation that is over the political and technological infrastructure causing irreversible environmental damage on a perpetuating the oil economy. Many people WHAT’S WRONG global scale is a choice. do not have the financial resources that are To counter Serota’s assertion, it seems that the oil sometimes required to make the most ethical or industry is using our cultural institutions to clean environmentally friendly consumer choices. You WITH OIL their dirty money. don’t have to give up every drop of petrol, plastic and oil in your life to be justified in asking for less of it in the world. This is not what hypocrisy is. Hypocrisy is pretending everything’s fine when it SPONSORSHIP “BP IS A PERFECTLY blatantly isn’t. LEGITIMATE COMPANY ANYWAY? AND WE ALL USE OIL “I DON’T THINK EVERYDAY.” THAT WHEN PEOPLE Tiffany Jenkins, director of Arts and Society at the Institute of Ideas6 COME OUT OF AN

There are a number of fundamental differences EXHIBITION, THEY in the levels of responsibility and accountability THINK: 'OH, WOW, between ‘us’ as individual consumers of petrol and related products, and the corporate institutions I’M GOING TO BUY BP that extract, process, transport and sell it. The health of oil companies depends on expanding PETROL NOW'.” Performance interventions by their operations, taking more oil out of the Grayson Perry, artist7 Liberate Tate have received ground, and selling more of it to consumers. While climate-conscious individuals may try to reduce It’s subliminal repetition that makes BP’s presence both applaud and criticism “THERE’S NO MONEY their consumption, corporations spend billions to in the gallery an effective public relations strategy. ensure that on the whole, their markets expand Branding works by creating good associations. A from the media and cultural THAT IS COMPLETELY increasingly. curved, machine-embroidered tick on the clothing Apart from its massive marketing budgets, commentators. Members of PURE.” of several people you walk past in the street, a green BP also wields enormous amounts of influence 5 mermaid on a paper coffee cup in the hands of every the art collective respond Nicholas Serota, Tate director through the number of its executives that have second commuter – these symbols create resonance enjoyed positions in government departments, to comments of critique to and power by short, sharp, regular appearances in Serota is right, no money is completely pure, but the number of political lobbyists that it employs contexts which give them value. BP’s sponsorship clarify the murky debate over some funding is dirtier than others. Tate knows this in London, Brussels and in other parts of the money is not philanthropy at all – it is the BP and filters sponsors through ethical guidelines that world, and through its affiliation with at least oil sponsorship and dispel the marketing department outsourcing a bargain PR keep check on those benefiting from association seven different industry lobby associations. The campaign from Tate. with Tate. combination of the vast sums of money involved, myths that surround it. In any case, the marketing involved in arts It can be argued that because tax is collected from combined with the political influence and access sponsorship is not aimed at selling petrol on the all businesses across all ethical practices, taxation to policy makers means that oil companies are not forecourts – its intention is to garner influence with itself is not a clean form of money and the arts just selling their product, they are actively shaping the ‘special publics’ (government, non-governmental already benefit from those taxes. Once taken from the parameters of the market place and defining organisations, academics, media, financial the taxpayer, however they may have earned it, the range of permissible choices. community and business peers) to improve its this money belongs to society and pays for schools, Furthermore, one cannot conflate the image. BP doesn’t promote its sponsorship on high healthcare, housing, galleries and social welfare. culpability of an individual with that of an oil street billboards, it promotes it on the back cover of Taking money directly from a specific corporation company. Individuals can do what they can to the Financial Times magazine, whose readership is associates those in receipt of the funds with the address oil consumption and carbon footprints of tiny but wealthy and influential. 14 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 15 “IF THEY [TATE AND “AT TATE'S SUMMER OTHER MUSEUMS] PARTY, I GOT INTO CAN GET MONEY FROM “I’D MUCH RATHER AN ANIMATED “IF YOU HAVE SPENT SATAN HIMSELF, THEY THE MONEY BE IN THE CONVERSATION ANY TIME IN AN ART SHOULD TAKE IT.” HANDS OF THE ARTS WITH ONE OR TWO GALLERY RECENTLY, Jonathan Jones, arts writer, The Guardian9 THAN A PETROLEUM DEMONSTRATORS. YOU ARE LIKELY TO COMPANY. Some argue that public galleries should take money SINCE THE PARTY HAVE BP TO THANK from anyone (even the devil!). Such an amoral SO ANYTHING THEY WAS CELEBRATING view completely dismisses widespread public FOR THE EXPERIENCE.” concern and is not in keeping with good ethical WANT TO GIVE, 20 YEARS OF BP practices. For example, the Tate Ethical Policy (due Tiffany Jenkins, director of arts and society at for review in May 2013) states that Tate will not the Institute of Ideas8 LET’S TAKE IT.” SPONSORSHIP, WHY, I accept donations when the donor “has acted, or is Nick Rhodes, Duran Duran keyboardist10 believed to have acted, illegally in the acquisition ASKED, HAD IT TAKEN Some have associated free entry to galleries and of funds, for example when funds are tainted Is it better that BP spends money on Tate than museums with the existence of oil money, but through being the proceeds of criminal conduct.” spend it on drilling for more oil? This is a complete THEM 19 YEARS AND there is no relationship between the two. These arts Arts & Business (a commerce and culture misunderstanding of the reasons BP give money. institutions are required by government to remain partnerships organisation) and others argue that The company is not doing it because it is an art 364 DAYS TO START open to the public as a pre-requisite of the public sponsorship should be taken from any legally loving corporation, although the undoubted money that they receive. COMPLAINING?” registered company. The promotion of this kind passion for the arts of individuals like ex-BP Cultural institutions would require some of relativism sidesteps any ethical considerations CEO John Browne help to create that illusion. Christopher Frayling, former chair, innovative planning in order to wean themselves off 11 and also ignores the views of the very citizens that It is doing it to buy the company a perception Arts Council England oil money, but it cannot be argued that it would be public institutions need to be accountable to. Arms of social legitimacy through association with impossible. Advocates for tobacco companies used manufacturers and tobacco companies, once proud arts institutions. This surreptitious rebranding is Protests against oil companies sponsoring cultural the same argument in the 1980s and 1990s, that sponsors of many a sporting and cultural event, achieved through a tiny amount of sponsorship events go back to at least June 2003, when Art Not international sporting events would be adversely lost this marketing opportunity due to public money, detracting from the reality of their Oil first protested outside a private view of the impacted by the withdrawal of tobacco money, but outcry. Both remain legal businesses but are no appalling record on human rights, safety and BP-sponsored National Portrait Awards. The first since then those events have found different revenue longer considered acceptable sponsorship partners. environmental disasters. By accepting money from performance by the group that went on to become streams and continued functioning as normal. As we transition towards a low carbon economy it BP, Tate is compliant in greenwash and aiding BP Liberate Tate took place in January 2010, before Ending oil sponsorship of the arts would not is inevitable that oil companies will find themselves in their work exploiting and selling oil. The money the Deepwater Horizon disaster happened. This spell the end of the arts. No arts institution depends increasingly marginalised in terms of partnership that BP spends on Tate and others is, in a very real is a not a flash-in-the-pan controversy in response solely on one particular sponsor and there are and sponsorship. sense, money that they are spending on drilling for to the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe. The issue is the significant corporate sponsors outside of the oil There has to be some sort of consideration more oil. role of oil companies in exacerbating the climate industry that would welcome the opportunity to be about the ethics of particular sponsors – and that crisis, the ongoing social and environmental havoc associated with such brands. discussion needs to keep happening according to that Shell has wreaked in the Niger Delta, and If you spend time in an art gallery, why not the changing context of the world we live in. One the involvement of both BP and Shell in tar sands thank the artists and curators, thank the cleaning of the biggest recent contextual changes we have exploitation and its devastating impacts on the and gallery staff, or thank the campaigners for free experienced is our awareness of climate change Boreal forest and Indigenous Peoples in Canada. access to national art museums (and the progressive being the greatest threat we face as a planet, and the The groups involved may have morphed, and the politicians that have kept it that way for over a role that oil companies play in peddling the product styles of protest may have varied, but artists and decade). that is taking us all to the edge of disaster. It is no environmentalists alike are increasing in their longer appropriate for BP to sponsor Tate, albeit commitment to make sure that oil money in the understandable that this relationship started when it arts becomes socially unacceptable. did in different times 20 years ago.

16 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 17 “ART AND ETHICS DO NOT HAVE A There have been a number of incidents “BP AS A COMPANY STRAIGHTFORWARD “I DON’T THINK involving censorship at major cultural institutions. IS LOOKING AT RELATIONSHIP, THEY THERE’S ANY WAY In 2010 a Tate Modern workshop on art and activism, Disobedience Makes History, saw RENEWABLE ENERGY HAVE A GRUBBILY WE CAN SAY THE participants being told not to explore any interventions against Tate sponsors. Although AS WELL AS USING CONVOLUTED ONE: ARTS SCENE HAS no actions against Tate or BP had been planned, participants felt that it was unacceptable, especially UP FOSSIL FUELS AND THE GREAT ART OF BEEN DISTORTED BY in mind of the workshop title, for Tate to attempt to censor them. The workshop group decided to USING OIL.” THE RENAISSANCE CORPORATE MONEY” collectively disobey this missive and Liberate Tate Nicholas Serota, Tate director12 WAS PAID FOR BY Colin Tweedy, chief executive, was born. Arts and Business14 More recently, Platform were told not to display In the words of Greenpeace director John USURY, VICE AND leaflets critical of Shell whilst participating in an Sauven, “BP's alternative energy business is a Contemporary art cannot be judged without event at the Shell sponsored South Bank Centre. plaything of former boss Lord Browne that has been CORRUPTION… THE also judging the circumstances surrounding the If high-profile cultural institutions such as Tate consigned to the corporate rubbish tip.” From the production of art, just as historical art is viewed and South Bank Centre are jittery about offending point of Tony Hayward’s succession of Lord John BORGIAS CREATED with context in mind. Most credible players in the sponsors, imagine what kind of censorship might Browne, BP steadily sold off renewable assets. art world acknowledge that corporate sponsorship lie ahead for others? This is not straightforward Hayward described the company he took over THE CULTURE IN does distort the arts. ideological censorship, but marketised censorship in 2007 derisively as having “too many people WHICH BRAMANTE Chin-tao Wu, in her book Privatising Culture, that ultimately maintains the link between that were working to save the world.” Investment demonstrates how corporations exert a quiet sponsorship and advertising at the expense of in renewables has continued to diminish under AND MICHELANGELO control when sponsoring as well as buying art. freedom of speech. current CEO Bob Dudley. To argue that corporate sponsorship does not Serota’s turn of phrase “using up fossil fuels” is an FLOURISHED.” interfere in the arts, is naive in the face of explicit accurate description of the company’s extraction Stephen Bayley, The Telegraph13 or implicit business needs and power dynamics. projects, into ever more risky and remote regions Playwright Mark Ravenhill has outlined how this of the planet, the details of which are covered in takes place in the theatre: This may have been how it was in the Renaissance, Profiling BP & Shell (p. 38-43). The true value “Making art is presenting a gift to the world. but is it something we want to emulate now? of Tate to BP is displayed in Serota’s comment; Business is the act of making a profit from the Contemporary artists and arts organisations have despite having no references or minimal grasp of world: the two things are in direct contradiction… the choice of a plethora of patronage options and BP operations, Serota is acting as a prominent cog Relationships with sponsors distort the arts in two ethics or constraints that go with each of them, in the company’s PR machine, propping up its ways. Corporate business is keen on community and are able to make informed choices about the false projection of itself as ‘Beyond Petroleum.’ projects, and theatres have often undertaken work best way preserve the integrity of their practice. they do not have a commitment to – because sponsors Art does not exist in a vacuum; it is borne out of want to be seen working with the homeless or another a particular political, economic and social situation group. They want to be associated with the biggest and has to be seen in that context. Past dissonance openings. It makes arts organisations contradictory: between art and ethics does not resolve present day one evening they are putting on corporate events, the problems and it is clear that we should assume that next it's a play with refugees.” 15 arts institutions, indeed all institutions, intend to move away from usury, vice and corruption. Public galleries have a role to enable a space where people can engage in culture that is not riddled with ethical dilemmas, which cannot simply be brushed under the foyer doormat.

18 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 19 20 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 21 Platform calls for full public disclosure on how The much BP sponsorship of Magic the Tate is worth. Number

In the Evening Standard in June 2010, painter Anthony Fry asserted that “It would be a disaster for the arts if BP withdrew its support.”16 Fry’s claim was made without the benefit of any financial accounts to support this judgement. For all sides of the debate around oil sponsorship of the arts, this figure would provide a solid point of reference to discuss the value of BP sponsorship, and the practical steps in a move away from it. Tate refuses to disclose the actual amount BP provides annually. Numerous requests have been made over the past ten years via Freedom of Information Act requests or letters addressed to the Tate Board. The request has been refused on the grounds that disclosure would be “harmful to business interests”, without specifying how it would be harmful, and how it has been decided that those business interests outweigh public interest. The figure used in the data used in the images on p. 24- 25 is a very loose estimation’ based on Tate annual reports and comments made by BP employees such as Arts & Culture Director Des Volaris. The estimated BP sponsorship is £385,000, founded on BP references to it in the press.17 These figures are wholly inaccurate and the data visualisa- tions are imagined on the basis of this unverified information to serve as illustrative emphasis only, on the need for this information to be revealed. The figure is expressed as a percentage of Tate sponsorship income 2010-11 (£3.191m18), 12%, and as a percentage of Tate annual spending 2010-11 (£98.589m19), 0.4%. We would welcome a correction by Tate disclosing how much it actually receives annually from BP. One data visualisation gives the same title to BP's estimated sponsorship of Tate as ex-BP CEO Tony Hayward’s damag- ing description of the Deepwater Horizon spill – “relatively tiny” compared with the “very big ocean.”20 22 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 23 Lisa Ifsits is a Graphic Designer based in London. www.lisaifsits.com

»Like a Grain of Sand« »Like a Drop in the Ocean« This image depicts the total of TATE annual spending, a dot illustrating This image depicts the total of TATE 0,4% – the guesstimated sponsorship sponsorship income, excluding the income from BP. guesstimated 12% from BP.

24 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 25 Ethical Funding And A Timeline Of Change Jane Trowell from Platform looks at how the zeitgeist on ethics, the arts and oil money has shifted since the mid-90s, when Platform first focused on this issue. Her timeline tracks how artists, non-governmental organisations and activists have raised this issue, how arts institutions have responded and how BP seeks to capitalise on the 2012 London Olympics.

1995

In 1995, Platform recognised 1996 the need to move culture as well as society away from a In response to the Shell fossil-fuel-based economy. Better Britain Campaign, Oil company sponsorship has Platform initiated Funding for formed an important strand of a Change, a network project Platform’s campaigning work in partnership with Artists ever since. Newsletter, Artists Agency and Shell was squirming under Projects Environment, funded the spotlight during the high by the Arts Council. Over two profile controversy over the years, Funding for a Change disposal of their North Sea put on five national events oil storage buoy Brent Spar, which brought together over and the shocking execution 150 campaigners, activists, of Nigerian writer and anti- artists and others from Shell campaigner Ken Saro- organisations as diverse as Wiwa. Meanwhile their Baby Milk Action, Chelsea charitable wing Shell Better College of Art, National Britain Campaign was offering Pensioners Alliance, Imperial financial support to worthy College, Countryside Council environmental projects in for Wales, Ethical Consumer the UK. Research Association, Black Environment Network, Still Life in Oil P D B G W W P Y Ex International Institute of Beltrá travelled in Louisiana after the Deepwater Horizon catastrophe. He writes: "Crude oil trickles off the feathers of the rescued brown pelicans, turning the white lining sheets into a sticky, stinking mess. The pelicans are going through the first stage of cleaning at Environmental Development, a temporary bird-rescue facility in Fort Jackson, Louisiana. They've already been sprayed with a light oil to break up the heavy crude the Art of Change and Tate. trapped in their feathers, which has turned their normally pale heads orange and their brown and grey feathers mahogany." Through this process support The annual exhibition which was previously sponsored by Shell, is now sponsored by Veolia, a company whose engineering work in Occupied Palestine have made it a target of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign. Several protests over this sponsorship took place at the Natural History Museum in 2010.

26 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 27 good taste, the sponsorship of multinationals and the networks were strengthened; patronage theorists who have groups shared alternative lost all touch with reality? How economic models; and entering work in oil-company can we safeguard the world their carbon footprints by 10% Platform developed trainings sponsored exhibitions such of free exchange which is and in 2010. Despite the fanfare on ethics and funding – to as the BP National Portrait must remain the world of surrounding their 10:10 pledge which organisations such as Award and staff in oil- artists, writers and scholars?” Tate continues to endorse BP, the Institute of Charitable sponsored arts institutions and therefore the oil industry, Fundraising Managers – by letter, email, and in through its sponsorship. 2008 booked sessions. person. This work has put names to responsibilities, and 2010 disrupted arts administrators' Buckled under the weight of 2002 notions that climate justice, its own contradictions, after oil dependency and ethics are sustained pressure from groups Out of a Tate workshop Chin-tao Wu concluded her none of their business. Art such as Art Not Oil, the Natural Disobedience Makes History, influential book Privatising Not Oil also has used the UK's History Museum drops Shell art collective Liberate Tate Culture: Corporate Art Freedom of Information Act as sponsor for the Wildlife was born, “taking creative Intervention since the to squeeze information out of Photographer of the Year disobedience against Tate 1980s with the words: "The oil-sponsored arts institutions, Award. until it drops its oil company current privileged position of the results of which are made funding.” After the news corporations in the art world fascinating by what is redacted broke of the catastrophic BP 2009 is not a permanent fixture... as much as by what is left Deepwater Horizon blow-out it may well be that one day visible. and subsequent oil spill in the sites of resistance will form to The year of the mass Gulf of Mexico, Liberate Tate's question and challenge what mobilisations for the UN well-crafted and media savvy 2005 for the present remains the Conference of the Parties on interventions took the issue to dominant order." Climate Change in Copenhagen a whole new level. On 28 June, Pierre Bourdieu and Hans (COP 15). In the cultural sphere whilst oil continued to gush Haacke's book Free Exchange every other gallery, arts centre into the ocean, Tate Britain 2003 was republished. This is a and theatre, from the Royal held its annual Summer Party key text which pulls to pieces Academy to the Barbican, also celebrating 20 years of Emerging from direct corporate interests in the arts, seemed to be programming BP sponsorship. Liberate Tate action group London Rising and the role of the artist in work on climate change on performed its iconic Licence Tide, Art Not Oil started challenging this. The book, the back of this groundswell. to Spill piece at the entrance mobilising "for creativity, a transcript of conversations On 1 September, Tate Modern to and inside the party. climate justice, and an end between Bourdieu and hosted a high-profile event This action alone provoked to oil industry sponsorship Haacke, asks, “How can we marking their sign-up to international media attention, of the arts". Art Not Oil affirm the independence of 10:10, a pledge to reduce spectacularly blasting the Banksy Pier Pressure organised open exhibitions critical artists and intellectuals controversy out into the http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hjIuMx-N7c of art and photography, and when confronted by the mainstream. built a movement of artists new crusaders of Western Meanwhile Platform had concerned about this issue culture, the neoconservative organised a sign-on letter to that achieved substantial champions of morality and the Guardian with signatures press and media coverage. Art from over 150 artists protesting Not Oil has challenged artists BP's sponsorship of Tate in light of Deepwater Horizon.

28 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 29 The 30-second ad promoted their investment in the 2012 London Olympics, which they are sponsoring to the tune of £50 million. The campaign was backed up by a slew of roadsides are being filled billboard ads around the UK with the BP brand as never showing paralympic runners before, in the run up to the 2011 on pristine beaches, that 2012 Olympics. The clean- soon provoked some ironic up of BP has to take place in comparisons to Gulf Coast two dimensions: the seabed, On the anniversary of the beaches in the mainstream fragile coastal ecology, habitats Deepwater Horizon disaster, media. and livelihood of the Gulf; another letter signed by over This PR campaign also and that of its shamed image, 170 artists was published in the promoted BP's use of biofuels justly sullied by a catastrophe Guardian. as clean renewable energy. caused by its own negligent, Guests attending the BP Scores of campaign groups cost-cutting behaviour. The National Portrait Award were and non governmental opportunity to be seen as a forced to file past an open organisations argue that bio- good corporate citizen through air 'Salon des Refuses'. An fuels are unsustainable, being its sponsorship of the Olympics exhibition of portraits rejected yet another highly destructive is magnificent timing from BP's by the National Portrait fuel source, necessitating perspective. Gallery's Award was exhibited large scale planting of London's cultural scene is on the pavement outside. monoculture crops that wipe still awash with oil company These are paintings from out biodiversity, deplete soil sponsorship, as if an interna- Facing the Gulf, made up of and create world hunger. tional discourse and alarm on portraits by residents of the After much speculation climate change simply has not Gulf Coast of Louisiana. These about who would get the taken place. Yet the contra- portraits show the realities of contract to develop "the dictions are showing and the life after the spill and call into brand recovery process" for myriad strategies for creative question the legitimacy of BP the "embattled energy firm", resistance by artists, activists as a responsible company and Ogilvy and Mather had been and concerned citizens are as an appropriate sponsor awarded the challenge to beginning to mesh together. of culture. Organiser Nancy "establish consumer trust" In the current context Boulicault said, "We think the through a "low-key marketing of an ideological siege on National Portrait Gallery needs strategy." Duncan Blake, BP's state funding of the arts, to start asking themselves Director of Brand insisted, "we and Arts Council England's some questions about this are trying to be humble." new 'strategic philanthropy relationship, in the same way The re-seduction of fund', dedicated to encourage as the people of the Gulf have corporate and individual giving, had to ask themselves very public opinion begins as our televisions, high streets and now more than ever before it is serious questions." critical to put ethics, aesthetics On 1 July BP launched their and corporate sponsorship first TV advert since the Gulf of under the spotlight. Mexico disaster a year earlier. Oil smearing in Wildlife Photography of the Year exhibition During the 2008 Award exhibition a group of Rising Tide UK activists entered the Natural History Museum gallery and released an oil like substance over a number of framed and glass fronted photo exhibits. The group were drawing attention visually to the mismatch between wildlife photography and oil company Shell, then sponsor. No exhibits were damaged in any way in this intervention.

30 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 31 Philip Goff from Art Uncut on why art needs to be publicly funded to protect its integrity. Cuts to government funding ARTS CUT of the arts make our exposure to culture vulnerable to market forces, and we should be clamouring to get TO THE government support back. HEART OF SOCIETY

he cuts are doing great harm to our The day that the government's austerity society. Some of the damage will measures hit the arts, a debate about the is- be plain to see: fewer police on the sue was hosted by Channel 4 News. Dr Steve streets, greater waiting times for op- Davies of the Institute of Economic Affairs, erations,T rising unemployment. But some of speaking in support of cuts to the arts had a the damage will be more subtle: universities simple argument, grounded not in evidence becoming driven by market values rather but in principle: it's not right to take peo- than the pursuit of knowledge for its own ple's money off them against their volition sake, the commercialisation of public institu- (ie through taxation) in order to spend it on tions, the closing of local theatres in com- the arts. Such opinions are not uncommon munities. In the long term these less obvious these days: ‘it's our money, so it's wrong to forms of loss will do great harm to our com- take it off us.’ munities, to our economy, and to our happi- Belief in such property rights is primitive. ness. Of course we must fight to keep hos- This is not to say that people don't have pitals open, but we must also fight to keep property rights. But whatever rights people public art supported by public funds. have to ‘their property’ are grounded in legal choices, which reflect the kind of society we choose to have. Property rights should be shaped by, rather than shape, the kind of so- Left and on page 35 and 36/37: Ruppe Koselleck, Takeover BP, ongoing since October 2001. Oil ciety we want to live in. painting. Since October 2001 German artist Putting things this way round changes ev- Ruppe Koselleck has made artworks from oil spill erything. If there are no sacrosanct rights of residues, including from Louisiana in 2010. With the property that we are duty bound to respect proceeds from each artwork sale, Koselleck buys shares in BP, with the ultimate plan to takeover and in our law, then we should really be focusing dismantle the company. (See p. 90 for video link) on what kind of society we want. Is it better

32 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 33 projects. Assuming we don’t want to let art which isn’t Cuts to the Is it better to have a society good for impressing clients wither and die, we must be arts are in which our cultural diet cautious about how much in- is entirely determined by fluence private benefactors cuts to the are gaining over the cultural market forces? life of our country. imagination Thirdly, we must ground this debate in a respect for the value of the arts to society, and the importance of to have a society in which our cultural diet access. State support commits arts institu- is entirely determined by market forces, in tions to remaining open to all, ensuring that which the only art that is supported is art everyone has the possibility to connect with that has commercial value, or that happens a vivid and changing cultural history, and to be favoured by the whims of the wealthy? valuing what the arts can bring to people’s Or is it preferable to have a society in which lives and experience. a fractional reduction in individuals' spend- These are complex ethical questions, ing power protects the arts we collectively which no one should oversimplify. But they value and enjoy? When the choice is put are questions that need to be asked. Protect- so starkly, it is difficult to deny that publicly ing our public institutions involves protecting funding the arts leads to a net gain in hu- their integrity, and thinking carefully about man flourishing. This isn’t the state stealing the values they promote. This is incompat- from the people; this is the people choosing ible with the unquestioning acceptance of through legitimate democratic channels how money from whoever is willing to give. they want society to be. That’s not to say that private money has no part to play in funding the arts. But Protecting our public there are at least three good “We believe that the arts are important argument for supporting the arts. A healthy reasons to be cautious. First- institutions involves because they change lives. society is one that has doubts and disputes, ly, it would be plainly naive Art is one of the key ways we have as a cul- uncertainties and divisions - how we cope to suppose that corporations protecting their ture of seeing ourselves, and of seeing our with those things, how we give space to dis- donating to the arts have relations to the world. Encounters with art cussing and dealing with them is the mark of wholly selfless motives. It is a integrity, and thinking - as school students, in further education, as our success. valuable badge of credibility adults - whether they take place in museums Art has a double centre - it asks that we to be ‘proud sponsors of the carefully about the and galleries, theatres, concert halls, village look closely at the world we are living in - Tate’. We need to ask, as a halls, street corners, websites or in any of the that we see it, for what it is, with all of its society, whether we want our values they promote many, many other places that art has made joys, complexities and all of its problems. At public institutions to award its own - have the possibility to awaken us to the same time art asks us to dream of anoth- such an honour to any corpo- new experiences, pleasures and questions. er space - to imagine things as otherwise, to ration willing to donate. Art is often talked of in terms of affirma- step outside the limits of our day to day. Secondly, we should be extremely wary tion and celebration and just for the record, Art and tolerance go together. of making the cultural arena beholden to we have nothing at all against these things. Cuts to the arts are cuts to the imagination.” what big business feels inclined to support. But we're also proud of the role art has to Corporations craving respectability will tend challenge, to provoke and to question. Tim Etchells of Forced Entertainment in response to to want to sign cheques for the ‘high brow’ Those experiences are the ones that stay the government arts spending cuts. art of galleries, opera and ballet, rather than with us - and for us make the most powerful fringe theatre and community based art

34 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 35 36 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 37 PROFILING BP & SHELL Platform on everything you need to know about the oil companies everyone loves to hate, BP and Shell. Both are sponsors of the major cultural institutions across London, have appalling records on human rights and safety, are investing in frontier oil extraction and are instrumental in the causes of climate change.

BP - FACTS AND FIGURES //

BP ranks in the top three in terms ing campaign in which BP claimed it would of reserves (the stored fossil fuels that supply ‘advanced biofuel’ to the London it plans to extract) of private oil and gas 2012 Olympics, but an analysis showed companies. More than 70% of profits that over 99% of the fleet would be using are generated in Europe and the United conventional fuel.21 For more information on States. It has operations in Europe, the this on BP’s involvement with the renew- Americas, Asia, Australasia and Africa. ables sector, see the interview with Antonia The company is also pressing ahead with Juhasz in the following section. new drilling and extraction operations in Africa, South America, Asia and the Cas- pian Sea. Many of these operations are In 2011, BP reported emitting almost taking place under dangerous conditions, 750 million tonnes of carbon into the at- in particularly environmentally sensitive mosphere through the extraction, trans- areas, or in conflict zones. portation and consumption of its fossil fuel products. In contrast, this was more than the total UK carbon emissions in 2008 BP has developed a sophisticated PR which was 522 million tonnes. strategy to promote its association with renewable energies despite the fact that its Ben Jones, Thank You BP, January 2011. investment in the sector peaked in 2006 Mixed media on paper. Thank You BP appears and was only ever a small fraction of the as a pseudo-corporate poster interspersed with marine life in deep-sea blues and greens. It was money it was spending on fossil fuel extrac- displayed as part of Jones’ exhibition Evolution- tion. A recent example of this is an advertis- Revolution at Rich Mix in London in January 2011.

38 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 39 SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROVERSIES //

The catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of “Do you [BP] feel that by having any kind Libya's coastal town of Sirt for in a scandal involving perjury in Mexico was the result of negligence, cost- of contact with a brigade that has been im- what BP described as, “the court, Nicholas Serota was cutting and carelessness on the part of BP. plicated in human rights abuses and mas- single largest exploration involved in a very public After 11 people lost their lives in the explo- sacres of innocent civilians those are the commitment in BP's 100-year campaign of support for Browne. sion on the rig, almost five million barrels kinds of bedfellows that BP should have? history and the single biggest This included spearheading a of oil gushed out into the Gulf of Mexico Do you not feel that it would be in order for award of exploration acreage letter signed by high-profile ocean basin, the biggest accidental marine a reputable company to have no contact by Libya to an international supporters in the Guardian, and oil spill in history. This one event should with these people at all? . . . Would you energy company in modern a comment piece in the news not detract attention from BP’s many other then consider it to be pertinent not to put times." Barely a year before BP paper, in which he wrote that, recent controversies: your profits above human rights abuses signed its deal, many protestors “we should all be grateful for the and people’s lives and actually withdraw were murdered during February support that he has given to Between 1990 and 2010, BP from that situation?”27 2006 demonstrations in culture in Britain by his demon- caused more than 8,000 spills Benghazi. stration that corporate sponso- of oil and dangerous chemicals rship for the arts and education and gases in the US alone.22 In February 2011, as news- In December 2010, BP announced it is a public good.”30  paper reports were filled with In 1999, the company agreed was making a major move into Canada’s stories of tanks crushing to pay compensation for charges controversial ‘tar sands’ with a £1.6 billion unarmed protestors in Benghazi of illegal dumping of hazardous investment in the ‘Sunrise Project’, that A Freedom of Information request and details emerged of air strikes  waste on Endicott Island in Arctic could be producing 200,000 barrels a day that was made by Greenpeace has also targeting demonstrations across Alaska.23 in the space of a few years. The entire tar illustrated how BP uses cultural sponsor- the country, BP CEO Bob Dudley sands infrastructure in Canada has been ship as a means of providing lobbying op- In 2006, the company was declared that "we remain the subject of extensive criticism for clear portunities, this time in the context of their responsible for spilling over a committed to doing business” cutting boreal forests, massively pollut- sponsorship of the Royal Opera House. In million litres of oil over Alaska’s in Libya.29 ing waterways and for soaring rates of attempting to arrange a meeting with an North Slope24, with a toxic spill of rare cancers that have occurred in nearby EU official with responsibility for biofuels, 2,000 litres occurring in Prudhoe indigenous communities. Extracting tar INVOLVEMENT WITH THE senior BP manager Simon Worthington Bay the following year.25 sands is far more polluting and destructive CULTURAL SECTOR // writes to Peter Vis, the Head of Cabinet to on the climate than 'normal' oil.28 the European Commissioner for Climate BP's operations in Colombia exacer- Action: “I don't want to put any pressure  BP and Tate have had a particu- bated and caused human rights abuses  on him – I know some like meeting with The ‘Arab Spring’ of 2011 has brought larly long relationship, with the 2010 Tate and conflicts. In particular, the company  stakeholders and others don't, so please with it a new awareness of how UK oil Summer Party celebrating 20 years of BP shared information and resources, with no- let him know that it's more the connection companies have actively supported sponsorship. torious repressive military and paramilitary rather than lobbying; maybe we can help repressive regimes throughout the Middle groups and police units.26 The extent of The sponsorship started in 1990, with the learning curve – I have a lot of East and North Africa. the allegations were such that it prompted two years after Nicholas Serota material here on biofuels I can share with Tess Kingham, then MP and member of In May 2007, the then newly- was appointed director of Tate. him… Let me know if you have an urge for 31 the UK House of Commons Select Com- appointed BP CEO Tony Ex-BP CEO Lord John Browne the opera." mittee on International Development, to Hayward and Libya National Oil became a Tate Trustee in 2007. ask the company in a 1998 inquiry into Company Chairman Shokri In May 2007, when John Browne, economic development and conflict: Ghanem signed documents in then still BP CEO, was embroiled

40 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 41 SHELL - FACTS AND FIGURES //

According to a study by Forbes humanity. On 10 November 1995, magazine, Shell is the fifth biggest writer and activist Ken Saro-Wiwa and company in the world, and the second eight other Ogonis were executed by biggest energy company. It’s an Anglo- the Nigerian military regime, despite Dutch company with headquarters in The an international outcry. Hague and a registered office in London, The landmark lawsuit Wiwa v Shell by the South Bank Centre. Operating in accused the company of complicity over 90 different countries, it produces in human rights abuses in Ogoni, around 3.1 million barrels of oil equivalent including the executions of Saro- per day. Wiwa and eight others. After a 13 year legal battle, in 2009, Shell settled out of court with the relatives of Ken In the 2011 Carbon Disclosure Project,  Saro-Wiwa and other Oginis who Shell reported annual emissions of 850 were killed or injured in the 1990s.33 million tonnes of carbon, compared with the total UK carbon emissions in Shell’s pollution and human rights 2008 which was 522 million tonnes. The abuses are ongoing in the Niger 2010 Shell Sustainability report showed Delta. A report released in October that Shell’s emissions were up by 9% 2011 by Platform showed that the from the previous year, and that the company has played an active role practice of flaring natural gas, a hugely in fuelling violent conflict during wasteful practice with enormous health the bloodiest years of the Delta Sokari Douglas Camp CBE, The Living INVOLVEMENT WITH THE consequences for local communities, was crisis. Shell paid contracts worth Memorial to Ken Saro-Wiwa, 2006. Steel CULTURAL SECTOR // up by 32%.32 hundreds of thousands of dollars sculpture. Commissioned by Platform in 2005, to armed militants, and company The Living Memorial has toured the UK occupying sites and galleries in Liverpool, Glastonbury, SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL management admits that Shell's Nottingham, Bristol and London. Shell is currently sponsoring the CONTROVERSIES // system of "community development" Photo: Martin LeSanto-Smith Science Museum, the Natural History is seriously flawed.34 Daily oil spills Museum, the National Gallery, the National from corroded pipelines have plagued resistance to Shell has damaged their Theatre, the South Bank Centre and the By far Shell’s biggest source of social Shell's operations. According to the reputation with both shareholders and National Maritime Museum. and environmental controversy has come UN Environment Programme, crude the public. Indeed, Shell has been named from its operations in the Niger Delta, oil has seeped five metres deep into in five lawsuits related to tar sands where it has been producing oil for over 50 the soil and contaminated the water developments and has faced shareholder Shell was the sponsor of the Natural years. table in many locations.35 resolutions demanding greater clarity over History Museum’s Wildlife Photographer 36 of the Year Award until it was dropped in Shell is the largest operator in Nigeria, the risk of tar sands investments. 2008 following protests from groups such with more than 80 fields and over Shell is one of the largest players as Rising Tide and Friends of the Earth. 6,000 km of pipelines and flowlines.  in the Canadian tar sands, producing Shell’s operations in Syria have When decades of environmental  approximately 276,000 barrels per day or provided enormous financial support for devastation sparked peaceful protests roughly 20% of total exports from Alberta. the brutal Assad regime. (Covered in more in the minority region of Ogoni in the Shell has made applications to expand its detail in Ai Weiwei, Ali Ferzat and Ahmed 1990s, Shell collaborated with the capacity through new mines and in situ Bassiouny on p. 60-65 ) Nigerian military, providing assistance projects, to a projected 770,000 barrel per to soldiers who committed human day capacity. However, strong community rights abuses and crimes against

42 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 43 Melina Laboucan-Massimo (pictured) of the Lubicon Cree comes from a community impacted by tar sands extraction. She has been campaigning on indigenous rights “We see land impacts, we see water impacts, for the last 10 years. we see air pollution. We see the complete change of the landscape from pristine Boreal Melina Laboucan-Massimo: forest, which is one of the last remaining “I come from the Lubicon-Cree First Nation in intact Boreal forests in the North, to an indus- the North-Western part of Canada, in Alberta.” trial wasteland.

“The tar sands extraction process is extremely “BP is at the beginning of their construction water intensive, energy intensive and produces phase for a joint venture with Husky called a lot more carbon the Sunrise Project in than other sources of the Athabasca region. unconventional fossil It’s an in-situ based fuels do. So what we We are seeing complete project where they are seeing is com- fragmentation or use more natural gas plete fragmentation to develop it as op- or destruction of the destruction of the posed to strip mining. boreal forest, from They use more water mining through to Boreal forest, from to develop it as they in situ developments, need to use steam, Photo: Jiri Rezac which pushes out mining through to and therefore there’s the wildlife that a lot more carbon emis- of local people are in situ developments, sions associated with dependent on. which pushes out in-situ mining that BP will be utilizing to VOICES FROM “My family has been the wildlife that a lot develop the tar sands. there for thousands of years as an indig- of local people are “In a carbon re- enous group and is strained world BP is OUTSIDE now dealing with a dependent on developing a high- complete change of carbon resource. At the landscape. And the same time, BP is now they’re either not respecting the being pushed out of certain areas or they’re rights of the indigenous peoples there. It has THE GALLERY not being able to practice their traditional, not done the duty to consult, it has not done sustainable way of life, which is also supposed the proper consultations in the tar sands that to be a protected way of life under Section 35 they should be doing. In these interview transcripts a fisherman, a writer, of the Canadian Constitution. a film-maker and an indigenous rights campaigner give their “The government is giving out leases and permits on traditional territories of Indig- very personal experiences of oil extraction, the Gulf of Mexico enous Peoples without consent or the duty to catastrophe and subsequent clean-up operation, and BP’s role in consult, which is a Supreme Court ruling in Canada. These things are being overlooked just supporting Mubarak’s repressive regime in Egypt. Each interview is to develop the tar sands. available to listen to in full online (see link on page 90).

44 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 45 “It’s a sad state of affairs when companies are “There are ramifications that are being felt Antonia Juhasz (pictured) is an oil trying to clean up their image by giving funds worldwide from BP’s projects and yet people industry analyst, activist and author of to something like art, which is an amazing hu- might not know about that in London, and Black Tide: the Devastating Impact of man expression. see beautiful art which is great but not know where that money has come from. the Gulf Oil Spill (Wiley 2011). “But when it’s tainted with something like BP giving money when, in some areas, its devel- “I would say look deeper into why BP is Antonia Juhasz: opments are hurting and killing or destroy- sponsoring the arts, what is their motivation “210 million gallons of oil were released into ing wildlife or destroying ecosystems, and and also where do they get their money from, the Gulf of Mexico.” yet they’re taking this money, our resource. where is this revenue stream coming from? Then they’re putting it back into an art form “If it wasn’t for Saddam Hussein intentionally in other places that do not see those impacts “Is it coming from the Gulf where there has using oil as a weapon in 1991, it was abso- happening from their projects. been a disaster and it has wreaked havoc on lutely, without comparison, the largest oil spill people’s lives and they’re not being account- in human history. Photo: Joshua Gilbert “They’re giving to other people who wouldn’t able to those people who are still struggling think twice about where that money is com- day in and day out with the disaster. “The impacts are devastating, interrelated and “There is the harm caused by direct human ing from or why. By doing that it tries to help ongoing. Oil remains on the bottom of the contact with the oil and the corexit. There’s them better their image but at the same time “Is it going to be coming from the tar sands ocean. Corexit—the chemical dispersant—re- also the consumption of seafood and sealife it covers up what they’re actually doing, with where people have already said “enough is mains at the bottom that has itself consumed the oil and corexit. the tar sands or with what they’ve done with enough, we want a moratorium on tar sand of the ocean and both the Gulf of Mexico disaster. projects” and yet BP is going ahead? regularly wash up on “There’s the impacts beaches. People have turned on the sealife and Vancouver Community Activists, Tar Sands Art, June “It's about asking where this money is coming to activism and are the sea food that is 2010. Painted mural. The painting tells the story of “the “If you push a stick now gone. We hear most environmentally destructive project on earth.” All from and how is it affecting people in other regularly from fishers of the images, facts and poetry in the painting are the places.” into the sand on the tirelessly fighting to collaborative creation of people from communities in beach you'll see oil even one year after Vancouver. The painting travelled from Vancouver to underneath. What make sure that the gulf the disaster that baby the Toronto G20 summit and back. you don’t see at the oysters aren’t being bottom of the ocean is restored, that BP and grown that are sup- is life – the life that is posed to be birthed. supposed to be down the rest of the industry Shrimp aren’t there there – that’s every- are held to account that are supposed to thing from worms, be and the sea life to sea grass to sea that is living is suffer- horses. All the life ing immense conse- on which the larger quences. mammals and sea life depends. “So we’ve had this horrible occurrence. This is the first birthing season after the disaster “For the people who live next to the Gulf there for dolphins. There are dead dolphin foetuses are numerous ongoing health impacts. These washing up on the beach, dolphins being born include impacts from the oil being burnt on the dead. There are small and medium dolphins surface of the ocean mixed with corexit. The that are dying and washing up on the beach. combination of the two created a deadly aero- We are seeing the first birthing impacts on the sol that the oil industry has no clue what the sealife. impacts of these two toxins together create. “Over eight months I spent significant time embedded with the communities most impacted by the disaster. There are many, many amazing stories.

46 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 47 “One of the most poignant for me has been “BP has done a tremendous job over the years Mike Roberts (pictured) has been my ongoing relationship with Keith Jones of greenwashing its image – remaking itself a fisherman in Louisiana for over whose son Gordon died aboard the Deepwater as a company for which ‘BP’ equals 'Beyond 35 years. In 2011 he attempted to Horizon. He was 28 years old, had a young son Petroleum'. at home and a wife just two weeks away from legitimately enter the BP AGM with giving birth to his second son. “I have done extensive research into BP’s a proxy share to address the board actual alternative energy expenditures. At about the impacts of the Gulf of “Gordon died like many of the men on the best, on its best year, BP spent a mere 4% of Mexico catastrophe, but he was rig: sacrificing to try and protect the rig and its total capital and exploratory budget on a refused entry. his fellow crew-mates. He could have saved very broadly defined category of ‘alternative himself and could have gotten away but chose energy.’ Mike Roberts: not to. “I’m a multi-generational commercial fisher- “This amount has been man. I have 5 children and 17 grandchildren “His father, Keith, is declining every single What’s really powerful and I live and work in Baritaria Bay.” now a tireless ad- year since then which vocate for reigning was 2006. BP is hardly is to look at that “We live inland, but we have this vast estuary in the oil indus- 'Beyond Petroleum.' The between where I live and the Gulf [of Mexico], try and making funding and look at name change was mere- and that’s mostly where we do all our work. sure that families ly an attempt to make Being commercial fishermen, we’re kinda ter- impacted by these that greenwashing the public believe that ritorial, and that’s where I work. types of disasters what is a dirty energy have their long right in the eye and company is a humane Photo: Bryan Parras “A friend of mine called the morning that the term needs taken company or a concerned say: it does not shield oil started to come in – actually to come inside care of. company with its invest- “Getting BP to divest from what ultimately the waters, and said that I had to hurry up and ments in socially pal- ends up being irresponsible investments your crime come see this, that I wouldn’t believe it. “He has most pable institutions. because it makes the public look the other poignantly been way is one of the most responsible things that “I had grown up with oil and gas all my life – an advocate on behalf of the families who lost “It's just a form of greenwash – it’s a form of activists can do. I’ve probably seen a hundred oil spills in my loved ones on the Deepwater Horizon. He is making a company that is involved in horren- lifetime, and so I wasn’t expecting it to be that trying to create lasting change as a result of dous human rights, environmental, social, and “BP needs to be held to account as a corpora- severe, because I thought I’d seen it all. this disaster through new legislation. political devastation look nice to the public. tion. It can't be allowed to put a fresh coat of paint over itself – put itself in a museum, put “I got in the boat, with my wife, one of my “But, he still goes back and forth between be- “However, no one, not even BP, thinks that by on a shiny coat and walk away. grandsons and a friend, and I took off down ing a lion and a broken man in the space of a funding Tate, people will think: Oh, BP is a ‘nice the Baritaria Bay. What I saw when I got there breath when discussing the disaster. company’. Nobody likes oil companies. “BP’s crimes, whether they are in the tar sands of Canada, in Azerbijian, or in the Gulf Coast, absolutely floored me. It was like a tonne of bricks just fell on me. It was immense. “Throughout the gulf there are heroes and “What BP does think is that people will think need to be addressed head on. heroines who, in the face of lost life and lost twice: ‘if I'm an activist or a concerned citizen “I couldn’t get out of the oil all day. I just rode livelihoods, of deteriorating health, and more, where should my energy go? Maybe it doesn’t “It’s your responsibility as a concerned citizen, and rode and rode in oil. Being a fisherman, we continue to fight every single day. That is one need to go against BP. Maybe I can focus as a citizen who cares about the role of corpo- think we’re tough. It made me weep. I didn’t of the most lasting impacts of this disaster, the somewhere else because BP funds Tate. There rations that so dominate our income and our want my grandson to see that. activism, and that people have turned to activ- must be something good about BP if it makes lives and dominate the lives of others, that we ism and are tirelessly fighting to make sure that choice.’ hold the company to account, make sure that “It was a really tough day for me, not unlike a that the gulf is restored, that BP and the rest it pays for its crimes and make sure that we death in the family. I had not wept for thirty of the industry are held to account, and that “It’s a way to try to deflect our energy. What’s hold it in check, regulate it, restrict it, rein in years before that. The last time I felt that kind government ‘regulators’ are held to account really powerful is to look at that funding and its operations and not allow it to create a false of emotion was when I lost my father. for their crimes in their gulf. look at that greenwashing right in the eye and impression of a socially and environmentally say: ‘it does not shield your crime - our atten- responsible company when we know the op- tion needs to focus on you. We’re gonna push posite to be true.” past this money and turn to you.’

48 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 49 “I’ve heard that in Alaska 20 years later there’s “Obviously you had a very strong level of po- “So that was the personal impact that it still oil in Prince William Sound and they flip litical oppression. There’s been no significant, had on me, not including the environmental over rocks, they still have oil there. So it’s a alternative political voice in Egypt for the last impact that was oc- completely differ- 30 years, apart from the Muslim Brotherhood. curring. It was pretty ent scenario with oil intense. compared to natural “Opposition leaders were thrown into jail, op- I couldn’t get out of the disasters. position movements were attacked. It used to “I’ve probably never oil all day. I just rode be that if you wanted to have a political dem- been to an art museum “So we’re scared, onstration you could mobilise maybe two or in my life. But the way and rode and rode in we’re worried, we’re three hundred people and you would literally I feel is that where I get anxious. We don’t be surrounded by two thousand riot police. to live and work and oil. Being a fisherman, know what’s going spend my days, I see art to happen to our “Often they were violently broken up – pro- every day, the art I see we think we’re tough. It fisheries. We’re being testers were beaten in broad daylight in the is painted by the hand told that every- middle of the streets. Campaigners would be of God. made me weep. I didn’t thing’s fine. But a thrown in jail. want my grandson to lot of us think that “It’s absolutely beauti- we’re being sold a “My cousin is a prominent blogger and an ful out there. Where see that bill of goods. early proponent of how to use the internet to we live and work, all push forward free speech. He was thrown in the fishermen call that “This shrimp season Omar Robert Hamilton (pictured, jail for 45 days – and was harassed so much God’s country, because it’s phenomenal. So to will tell the story of what the impact is going over the next months that afterwards he left have BP pour oil all over our God’s country and to be on our community because our com- Tahrir Square, January 2011) is an the country. decimate it, is overwhelming. And then to sup- munity revolves around seafood. That’s what Egyptian/English film-maker living in port man-made art. we do. That’s our way Cairo, and the producer of the annual “Yet, it wasn’t always immediately clear you It’s just wrong. of life. Palestine Festival of Literature. were living in a really heavy-handed police To have BP pour oil state until you would actually try and do any- “We’re used to dealing “If it decimates the Omar Robert Hamilton: thing, try and start a business, try and open a with hurricanes and all over our God’s seafood industry, “For the last 30 years, Egypt has been living in shop. Then the corruption would kick in, the all that stuff, natural which we’re being a state of emergency.” bureaucracy, the malaise. disasters – a hurricane country and decimate told it hasn’t harmed comes and floods, in the least but a lot “We’ve been ruled by Emergency Law, and “In Egypt 40% of the country is now living it destroys stuff, we it is overwhelming. of us don’t believe, really nearly every aspect of Egyptian life has under the poverty line. For a country that is re- know it’s going to And then to support then that will deter- deteriorated as a ally bountiful in terms rebound because it’s mine the severity of result. of land and natural nature. We pick up the man-made art. It’s just the impacts on us. We know that BP is up resources, and has pieces and go back to “Employment got always been able to work, we put our lives wrong “In the short-term worse, job opportuni- there with the worst of feed itself, Egypt has back together. Usually and the long-term ties, the state of the been stripped of that it’s over with. we think that there’s environment, the the worst, they clearly ability. going to be health problems. We can already state of pollution, the “But with the BP oil spill, that’s man-made. see health problems starting in town. Weird state of education… have no moral qualms “I remember when we We don’t know what the future holds with the things that just don’t happen all the time. every single institu- about anything they do were in Tahrir on the toxins and the chemicals. People have a lot of coughs now, respiratory tion in the country, night that Mubarak problems. They’re getting sores on them – stuff every single facet of stepped down, and that’s just not natural. life was really being the first chant, and slowly ground down by the regime and the chant that always got me, was “lift your “We don’t know what the future holds for us its cronies. head up high, you’re an Egyptian.” in coastal Louisiana. I guess time will tell.”

50 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 51 “But there was another as you walked around, twice in the neck, for standing with some there were groups of young guys signing, “We people who were milling around on the street. can get married, we can get married.” There’s a whole generation of people that have been “There’s a lot of stories like that, of people just unable to get together the very basics that catching bullets. And the families of the mar- you need to construct a home that you can tyrs now have really become central. get married in. Mean- while of course the rich “None of the of- are getting very, very BP, as the largest ficers accused of rich. the killing have foreign investor in been brought to “There are nightclubs trial, and not only now where you to spend the country, played a that, now they’re 250 Egyptian pounds actually being just to walk in the door, major role in keeping harassed by police and that’s more than officers, being half what a conscripted Mubarak and his gang offered money to soldier earns in a month. in power keep quiet. They’re People have houses having their chil- across the country. Drive dren’s reputations imported BMWs. The dis- attacked – so this parities are disgusting. That is very clear and is becoming a central issue now, and of course very evident and a real source of anger. that’s what Mubarak is on trial for. Generic Art Solutions, The Raft, 2010. 82lb wet strength billboard paper. This G.A.S. adaptation of Theodore Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa (1818-19), which depicts lives needlessly lost at sea under the restored French “But the revolution wasn’t a class revolt. It was “It’s hugely disappointing that the Tate, which Monarchy, is fused with the modern day tragedy of the eleven men who died during the BP Deepwater Horizon oil much more like everyone vs the State. Or Egypt is one of the things I really look forward to rig explosion on April 20, 2010. Parallel stories of anguish, waste and mismanagement are blended into a timeless vs the State. when I come back to London - the art scene panorama on human fallibility. G.A.S. use self-reflexive images in all of their photography. The eleven men on the and particularly the Tate Modern - that they raft are repeated portraits of Matt Vis and Tony Campell, posed in different positions. Image courtesy of the artists and Jonathan Ferrara Gallery, New Orleans. “No one that I personally knew was killed, feel able to accept money that is clearly so but as the revolution has carried on, one of dirty. the causes that people are really coalescing around now is the families of the martyrs and “It’s completely unacceptable - we know that governments and multinational corporations, their push for justice. BP is up there with the worst of the worst, a country that feeds its people before polluting they clearly have no moral qualms about any- its waters. “And I’ve got to know the father of one young thing they do. How can institutions that are man – he’d been out with his son on 25 supposed to be leading the country, that are “BP, as the largest foreign investor in the coun- January, having a look and seeing what was supposed to be thought leaders, that are sup- try, played a major role in keeping Mubarak happening. They had gone home. They lived in posed to be an expression of our freedom - be and his gang in power. It has lots to answer for. Shubra. built on oil money. It is so disheartening. “But it has a chance now to recalibrate its “But his son wanted to do some work but “Our revolution was, in a large part, about relationship with Egypt, to invest in clean en- he didn’t have a computer so he went to his autonomy. About creating a country that acts ergy, to strike equitable deals, to place justice friend’s house to go and finish some project in the best interests of its citizens, a coun- at the centre of its policies, rather than profit. he was working on. The next thing his father try that isn’t beholden to the will of foreign It can, if it chooses, be a partner in building a knows, he’s got a phone call - his son was shot new world rather than enemy. Let’s hope.” 

52 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 53 he body that should be taking leadership to end BP's involvement with Tate is the Tate Board of Trustees, the legal entity re- Tsponsible for running Tate. Tate Trustees are required by law to act as guardians of A Question Of the public interest. Tate, like other national museums and galleries, is a charity. Its full charitable 21st Century status in the UK allows Tate to raise funds from sponsorship. Through the Muse- ums & Galleries Act 1992, and as set out in the Charities Act, Tate is an 'exempt Leadership And charity' regulated by statute and by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS), a department of the UK government, not the Charity Commission. Governance Tate is a Non-Departmental Public Body (NDPB), funded in part by DCMS. A NDPB is a body which, as Tate states: "carries out functions on behalf of the Glen Tarman from Liberate Tate government department that sponsors it, but is administered independently. It is examines the role of those with therefore able to focus entirely on its own decision-making power at Tate, and objectives and make unbiased recom- mendations and decisions". their responsibility to act in the interest As such, Tate makes decisions free of the public good as a public body from government. The funding agree- with regards to oil sponsorship. ment from government may set out broad expectations (such as "Tate will pursue Following this are comments made by ways to increase its self-generated in- Tate Board member Bob and Roberta come, including through private giving" and that "free entry to the permanent Smith on BP’s reputation and the collections of the national museums will importance of both grassroots and continue")37 but it makes no prescriptions on how Tate should supplement the grant board level activism. it receives from the DCMS through other sources such as sponsorship. The Coali- tion Government has told Tate it wants to 'Tate should end its relationship with BP’, The see more private giving and a broad range Guardian Letters, 20.04.11. This letter was signed of business support but it does not tell by over 170 artists and cultural workers. Tate which companies it should or should not accept support from. BP was introduced as a sponsor by Tate in 1990. The last decision to extend BP’s sponsorship (to 2012) was taken in 2006.

54 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 55 A Freedom of Information Act request Tate maintained that in "scrutinising and Shell are means by which attention reveals the decision was "taken by mem- its corporate sponsors during a period can be distracted from their impacts on Tate's relationship bers of the senior management team". It of constrained public spending, Tate is human rights, the environment and the is not known why what had become such fulfilling its duty as a responsible public global climate". with stakeholders a contentious relationship was continued body". Importantly, the Board agreed to In short, Tate's relationship with without a decision at board level at that a "review of all corporate sponsorships" stakeholders was being harmed ahead of was being harmed time. and acknowledged that its own Sustain- and in 2010 as it still is today. The Tate ability Strategy did not include funding Board has not taken into account the full ahead of and in 2010 ❖ relationships and this should be rectified. extent of damage to its reputation and other relationships (there are reasons in as it still is today In August 2007, decision-making on ❖ Tate's own Ethical Policy for not accept- sponsorship matters became more compli- ing sponsorship funds from BP). Given cated by the appointment of BP's former Within only weeks of the re-endorse- increasing awareness about the climate in certain circumstances, they have the CEO and Chair Lord Browne to the Tate ment of the BP relationship by the Board and BP, being associated with a company space to choose to refuse money. Papers Board. In January 2009 Lord Browne it became totally apparent that a wide that continues to be one of the biggest to the Tate Board have stated a legal became Chair of Tate Board of Trustees. cross-section of people with various polluters in the world, that is lobbying requirement to be predisposed to ac- While no-one questions Lord Browne's relationships to the arts believed that, in against clean energy and to weaken cli- cept funds from legal sources. Yet the law passion for the arts and that he has the words of a letter to the national press, mate legislation, will only further damage clearly allows ethical factors to be taken chaired Tate through a period of notable "the BP logo represents a stain on Tate's Tate's relationships. into account. Trustees need only to be successes, questions do remain about Tate international reputation", that "many art- able to demonstrate that they have acted decision-making in relation to BP. Not ists are angry that Tate and other national ❖ in line with their objects. least because any policy relating to BP is a cultural institutions continue to sidestep The position of Tate towards a conten- reflection in part on decisions made whilst the issue of oil sponsorship", and "the If earlier decisions have become even tious donor is determined by whether its Browne was still at the helm of the oil public is rapidly coming to recognise more questionable, this is also extended objects are affected by association with company. Related Tate minutes do not re- that the sponsorship programmes of BP to the fact that Tate Trustees had unfor- that donor. The refusal of a donation can fer to any standing aside for related items. tunately allowed that the sponsorship be made on various different grounds. On 18 May 2010, as BP oil was spill- contract with BP to contain a confidenti- There are strong grounds to see BP working across the Gulf of ality clause prohibiting either party from ing in ways opposed to those of Tate, such Mexico, the Tate Board releasing details of the agreement. Tate as its position on sustainability. There accepted, on the rec- On 18 May 2010, as BP will not even release information such is also now demonstrable evidence that ommendation of the as contract start and end dates. How did receipt of BP money is affecting sup- Tate Ethics Committee oil was spilling across the Tate's governing body allow it to be liable port for Tate whether in the hundreds of (as of 6 May 2010) that for breach of confidence through such an artists that have voiced their protests or its current relationship Gulf of Mexico, the Tate obligation so invidious to values of public from Tate members, visitors and amongst with BP be continued transparency? the wider public. Sound legal, regulatory "given that there was Board accepted, on the The public (and potential sponsors) de- and governance mechanisms exist to not no evidence to suggest serve to know more about the deal that is renew a further contract with BP. that the acceptance of recommendation of the Tate supposedly worth being implicated in en- funds from BP would vironmental degradation, climate change, ❖ significantly damage Ethics Committee (as of 6 human rights abuses and the backing of the effective operation repressive regimes such as those the Arab Tate's interpretation of its Ethical of Tate." It was recog- May 2010) that its current Spring has confronted. Fundraising Policy with regard to BP to nised that "this could relationship with BP be While Tate trustees do have a duty to date should be revisited and a different change in the future maximise resources for the institution, position taken by Tate at the earliest op- and should be kept continued portunity. under review." Tate has a sponsor in BP that is engaged in socially and ecologically destruc-

56 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 57 Bob and Roberta Smith because I believe in the power of art. Art is important, yet art is under threat. That is Tate has a sponsor in BP that is engaged on Tate and BP (2011) why I sit on that Board. I will not leave the Board because of protests about BP but these in socially and ecologically destructive British artist and member of protests are important. the Board of Trustees of Tate "Green politics has two broad groups, activities. This is incompatible with Tate’s those that go out and do very powerful and (appointed July 2009). Speaking political actions, things that I would never do, ethical guidelines at the Art, Activism and the like Greenpeace getting on boats in front of a Avant-garde public event whale. And then there are those that engage politicians and the people who have power tive activities. This is incompatible with ing so the Board will be acting in the best (Somerset House 6 June 2011) and create a situation where a dialogue can Tate’s ethical guidelines, its stated vision in interests of Tate and the arts as well as in response to take place. I fit more in regard to sustainability and climate change, affected communities, future generations questions from that latter camp than the and for maintaining Tate’s reputation. and the world we live in. I am critical of activists although I respect In addition, Tate's mission is under- the audience. The what the activists are mined if visitors to its galleries cannot en- event was held in BP and yet I sit on doing and saying and they joy great art without the museum making response to the are right to highlight what them complicit in creating climate chaos. the Tate Board Liberate Tate, Sunflower, September 2010. imprisonment of they are. A significant and growing number of Tate Performance, Tate Modern. Forty figures dressed "Art, unfortunately, members and visitors are saying that this in black entered the Turbine Hall in single file. the artist Ai Weiwei. is not a clean a space. If is the case. Forming a circle, the performers placed paint Michelangelo had said Tate Board of Trustees, as a governing tubes bearing BP logos and in sequence expelled "I am a trustee of Tate, the oil. This formed the imprint below, echoing to the Pope, ‘I don't like body, should recognise this, listen and act which takes money from the BP ‘helios’ logo and anticipating Ai Weiwei’s Protest does put what you are doing in on public concern and take leadership by BP. BP is beginning to Sunflower Seeds installation that was to follow in France’, there would be ending Tate’s relationship with BP. In do- the Turbine Hall. Photo: Jeffrey Blackler stand for 'Beyond the pressure on Tate. Pale'. It's going to dig no Sistine Chapel ceiling. up the Arctic, it's sucking That's a good Art is filthy. It is as filthy up oil from tar sands. We as I am buying petrol from should have a moratorium thing. And via that BP to drive to B&Q to on the seas and stop deep protests also put get materials to make my drilling. What Platform art. The whole of Western are saying [about BP, its pressure on BP society is based on digging support for regimes of up the planet and burning human rights abuses and it. So many of us all are how arts institutions are implicated] is right horrified about the Gulf, and it needs to be said. People are demanding the Arctic and the environment elsewhere. human rights across the world. When activists That public concern about BP includes Tate and all the groups protest, at for example members and visitors - that is why [artist and events like Tate Summer Party, that is a Tate trustee] Wolfgang Tillmans raised this thoroughly good thing. It allows me to say: issue at a Tate Board meeting. My ability to BP are a disgrace. talk to those I have access to is generated by "The relationship of BP and Tate protest. Protest does puts pressure on Tate. is nuanced and complex and full of That's a good thing. And via that protests contradictions. I am critical of BP and yet also put pressure on BP." I sit on the Tate Board. I'm on that Board

58 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 59 Ai Weiwei, Ali Ferzat & Ahmed Bassiouny Mel Evans from Platform considers the political plight of three artists who in the practice of their work have experienced state-led persecution, looking at the role of an international arts community in speaking up for the human rights of artists.

Ai made in response to the Weiwei’s incarceration, Tate Chinese earthquake of inscribed ‘Release Ai Weiwei’ Weiwei 2008. Shocked by the loss at the top of the Turbine Hall of children’s lives caused that contained his exhibit. Ai Weiwei is a Chinese by badly built government Tate also started a online contemporary artist whose buildings and schools, So campaign for his release and politically engaged work, Sorry was a direct attack led a petition alongside the ranging from sculpture to on the rhetoric of govern- Guggenheim and numerous photography, has been exhib- ments and corporations modern art galleries around ited in modern art galleries whose empty apologies the world that was signed by 38 around the globe. Famed for mask their own negligence. over 140,000 people. Ai Birds Nest, the stadium of the During the exhibition of Weiwei was released on 22 Olympic Games in Beijing, Sunflower Seeds Ai Weiwei was June 2011, under continued other notable works include: arrested at Beijing airport on threat of imprisonment for Remembering, exhibited in 3 April 2011. By 4 April, both alleged subversion. Citing So Sorry at Haus der Kunst Weiwei and his friend Wen restrictions on speaking to in Munich 2009-10; and Tao were missing, and their journalists, Weiwei released Ahmed Bassiouny, SunflowerSeeds , exhibited in homes searched; freeaiweiwei. a commentary to the press, 30 Days of Running in Place, the Tate Modern Turbine org chronicles the ensuing which included this descrip- June 2011. Video still. Hall in 2011. Remembering, struggles and intimidation of tion of his situation: Image courtesy of the their families and colleagues. "My ordeal made me understand Bassiouny family. constructed from 9,000 children’s rucksacks, was The week following Ai that on this fabric, there are many 60 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 61 Ahmed Bassiouny, 30 Days of Running in Place, Tate assumed a June 2011. Video still. Aida Eltorie, one of the curators of the Egyptian Pavilion at the Venice position on human Biennale, states that 30 Days of Running in a Place: “marks a specific time when the artist ran in place rights by speaking in anticipation of countering [and recording] a digital reaction; the aim up for an artist was to observe how through the act of running in place - with sensors installed in the soles of his shoes and on his body [to read levels of body heat] - a visual diagram of codes hidden spots where they put people (Egypt). The readiness of Tate could be extracted, and to visually without identity. Only your family and other galleries to criticise witness the movement of energy and is crying out that you're missing. the Chinese government’s physical consumption be born in an But you can't get answers from the treatment of Ai Weiwei, image.” Image courtesy of the street communities or officials, or although to be applauded, is Bassiouny family. even at the highest levels, the court undermined by their com- or the police or the head of the plicity, through sponsorship, nation.” with the oil companies that hold close ties with oppressive International Festival in Ger- Role Of The Gallery regimes persecuting artists in many, 1980, as well as death In the case of Ai Weiwei, Tate other countries. threats from Saddam Hussein. assumed a position on human He was featured regularly rights by speaking up for an in the French newspaper Le artist. It demonstrated an Ali Monde whilst being banned effective capacity to mobil- Ferzat in Iraq, Jordan and Libya. ise global backing and give Initially encouraged by Syrian space for an international art President-to-be Bashar Assad, community to take action in Ferzat established the first support of a member of its independent periodical al- own network. Tate’s action Domari (‘The Lamplighter’) in does nonetheless beg the ques- the wave of reforms opened tion of how would it respond by Assad as he took control if its principle sponsor had of Syria in 2000; by 2003 been a financial backer of the al-Domari was forced to close repressive government? There Cartoon, Ali Ferzat due to repeated government www.ali-ferzat.com are two other recent cases in censorship. which artists were persecuted Following that, Ferzat be- Ali Ferzat is a prominent by their homeland state, who came a vehement critic of the political cartoonist whose po- did not receive the same level Assad regime. When the Syr- litical cartoons and caricatures of attention as Ai Weiwei: Ali ian uprising began in March had targeted dictators across Ferzat and Ahmed Bassiouny. 2011, Ferzat’s satire fiercely the Middle East. Appearing The governing regimes in condemned the military’s bru- in Syrian daily newspapers their respective countries, tal crackdown on the Syrian for decades his work won him Syria and Egypt had close protest movement. In August first prize in the Intergraphic ties with Shell (Syria) and BP 2011 Ali Ferzat was beaten

62 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 63 and had his hands broken by General Manager in Syria has Bassiouny’s multimedia work investor in the country and Coincidental Complicity masked gunmen. The attack repeatedly praised the Syrian Ahmed 30 Days of Running in Place was responsible for almost half The British Museum’s BP on the artist was described regime in terms that equate Bassiouny profiled in the Egyptian pavil- of Egypt’s entire oil produc- Special Exhibition The Ancient on the Facebook page of the Assad’s regime with the Syri- lion at the Venice Biennale, tion, easily overshadowing all Egyptian Book of the Dead US Embassy in Damascus as an people: “This success could 2011; the work was presented competitors. BP continued opened just 3 months before Ahmed Bassiouny was a a “government-sponsored, not have been achieved with- alongside footage shot by to extract crude and under- the protests that sparked the young arts professor, sound targeted, brutal attack."39 out the strong partnerships Bassiouny of the events on the write repression throughout Egyptian revolution that and visual artist and musician Shell’s relationship with that have been developed over streets of Cairo from 25 – 28 more than four decades of began on 25 January 2011. whose work was considered Assad’s regime has remained the years between Shell and January 2011. Emergency Law, investing The correlation of the pop- significant in a new generation strong throughout 2011. the Government of Syria. We While on the streets in over $17 billion in oil rigs and ular uprising with the BP spe- of Egyptian artists. Bassiouny In May 2011, when over a believe that the relationship Cairo, Ahmed Bassiouny was pipelines. Billions of dollars cial exhibition at the British was killed during street pro- thousand people had been Shell has with the Govern- killed by armed police. He in revenue payments enabled Museum, albeit a coincidence, tests on 28 January 2011, just killed and more than ten ment and the Syrian people is was one of the 846 people to Mubarak to build up and arm makes a striking example of days into the mobilisations thousand imprisoned in Syria mutually beneficial.”41 be killed during the 18 days of both his civil and paramilitary the dissonance created by the that sparked the Egyptian rev- during the popular uprising, Currently the Southbank protests that led to President police forces and the army. presence of international oil olution. Bassiouny had won Shell was sending a tanker Centre, the National Theatre Hosni Mubarak’s resigna- During the uprising, BP’s companies in cultural institu- a painting prize in 2001, and to collect 600,000 barrels of the Science Museum and the tion on 11 February 2011. website carried no comment tions. It is moments like the proceeded to explore more crude oil worth $55 million National Gallery accept spon- The millions that took to the on the democratic protests Egyptian uprising, when the experimental forms, looking from the state company. 17% sorship from Shell, amongst streets of Cairo, Alexandria or the regime’s attempts at world’s attention was turned at digital interactive media, of Syrian tanks – instrumental several other cultural institu- and Suez were furious at repression, referring only to to the Mubarak dictatorship and participating in ‘Egypt in the repression of the upris- tions in London. Mubarak for upholding his “the ongoing unrest in Egypt” and all who supported it, that Lab’ with Medrar Contempo- ing – run on fuel derived from (see p. 90 for video link) own interests and those of and evacuation plans. Mean- BP needs this positive adver- rary Art Foundation in Egypt Shell crude.40 Shell has also Western powers and foreign while, drilling and extraction tising the most. and the Hangar Foundation promoted its political support companies at the expense of operations continue unabated, The tacit support of BP by in Barcelona. His music was of the regime on a number the Egyptian people. with most oil facilities located these institutions is, to some to feature at SONAR Festival of occasions. Shell’s Deputy For decades, British and out of reach of normal street artists, cultural workers, Tate in Barcelona 2011. Ahmed American oil companies protests. BP assumed that members and visitors, utterly worked hand in glove with Egypt’s strong army would unacceptable. The position the Egyptian dictatorship, guarantee the security integ- on this issue by the three fea- enjoying its ‘stability’ (lack of rity of its assets, and contin- tured artists who have faced democratic change), ‘security’ ued to pay revenues to and persecution is unknown, but (repression of dissent) and underwrite a regime widely nonetheless these cases serve ‘favourable business environ- accepted as illegitimate. to emphasise the problematic ment’ (neoliberal policies and (see p. 90 for video link) proximity between art gal- restrictions on trade unions). leries who continue to accept BP was always particularly sponsorship from BP or Shell, proud of its “strong rela- and the human rights viola- tionships with the Egyptian tions they themselves would government”, boasting that it condemn. The sun will set on was the single largest foreign oil sponsorship of the arts; but for now the galleries remain seriously compromised by the morally bankrupt practices of oil companies.

Tate Modern building in May 2011 with ‘Release Ai Weiwei’ above Turbine Hall and visible from the north bank of the River Thames. Photo: Steve Bottoms 64 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 65 VISIONS OF CULTURE BEYOND OIL 66 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 67 Previous spread and on p. 71, 72-73: Reverend Artists and arts writers were asked to consider the landscape of a culture beyond Billy and the Church of Earthalujah, The Exorcism of oil. What could culture look like without oil sponsorship? What are the current BP, 2011. Performance. As part of their European Earthalujah Tour, performance troupe Reverend Billy and issues around culture and sponsorship? What values would inform artistic the Church of Earthalujah performed an exorcism of BP inside the Tate Modern Turbine Hall, with a congregation processes? Where do art and ecology meet? What does a cultural shift away from of over a hundred present. (see p. 90 for video link) oil look like? Here the plethora of responses in words, image, song and video are Photo: Sophie Molins gathered together to paint that picture.

ANTI BP SONG (BY NEAL, GABRIEL AND SID) HAYLEY NEWMAN

One of the ways big oil seeks to They must have heard Mum and Dad talking legitimise its social licence to in the car earlier about what to do for Mel, from operate is through our children. Platform, who invited us to contribute something Children are a special public to a publication on ‘Visions for Culture Beyond for big oil. We’ve got three boys Oil’. They must have heard us struggling to come who all know of BP. up with something clever or dashing, hard- Near us, off a road in hitting or interesting. We do feel a little self- Liverpool called New Islington, conscious sometimes for pressing our children to a road that connects the city speak the lingo of social and ecological justice. centre with North Liverpool It’s a complicated one. Sometimes we feel sorry and beyond, there’s a busy for having dragged them on demonstrations, BP petrol station. You can see performance events, solidarity meetings or it from the top of the hill that planning sessions; other times we feel proud of houses the local university ourselves for having put in the effort. But this we work at. Our kids know time it was them, not us. the shop is franchised out to Watch Neal, Gabriel and Sid sing the Anti BP song at When kids sing like this in cars it’s usually, in a family whose first language http://andersonsamazingamericanadventures.wordpress.com/ our experience, because they’re either bored by isn’t English. We’ve been there anti-bp-song-by-neal-gabriel-and-sid/ the journey or trying to annoy us, or both. This a hundred times to re-fuel our is no exception, but here, as far as we can tell, VW Polo. in the back of a 4x4 Mitsubishi Endeavour, Neal, The children usually Without really noticing that there were Gabriel and Sid are vocally rejecting BP’s social comment during fuel-ups that this company connections, and for other reasons, the Institute licence to operate. has the name ‘British’ in it, has a green and decided to drive from Chicago to the Gulf of yellow flower logo made up of triangles and was Mexico this summer; bewitched by the idea The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home is on the telly for three months straight recently of the Great River Road and the promise of run out of a council property bedroom in Everton, Liverpool. trying to plug a leak. The engineering elements experiencing the belly of the empire from within. Originally been set up to coincide with the Liverpool 08 of stopping things happening underwater have As we drew towards the end of the trip, that part European Capital of Culture, or what the Institute calls Culture fascinated our eldest since the five million barrel that crosses the swamps of New Orleans into of Capitalism, C®apital of Culture or even Capital(ism) for The Ghost of Greenwash, 2011. Drawing. spill. Neal and Gabriel are often heard saying to the Gulf of Mexico, we heard, from the back of Vultures, the Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at each other that it was the worst oil spill in the the car, a new song. Neal, Gabriel and Sid were Home is a space for dissenting the Capitalism of Culture. sea in the history of the world, EVER! singing it. www.twoaddthree.org Since 1994 Hayley Newman has performed and directed numerous live events working with performance, experimental sound, video, photography and text. She is one third of eco- feminist girl band The Gluts.

68 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 69 JULIAN STALLABRASS – ART POLLUTES OIL SALETTE GRESSETT

‘BP is a great company!’ This was the closing a private fund for buying art). It probably helps Despite the enviable public support for the arts Why is private finance of the arts a disaster line of a speech to a crowd of invited art a bit that BP carries the word ‘British’ in its title, of our European counterparts, we [in the UK] are in the States? Aside from the major ethical world folk at a Tate event. The baldness of the the relic of an long-extinct attachment to nation. in a much better position than the United States. implications, the financial crisis has blown statement was unusual, but the sentiment, ‘Friendships’ are warmed with a comfortingly What is worrying about the possible future here big holes in the majority of the corporate, repeated again and again, louder and softer, is patriotic tinge in the seemingly natural alliance is it could be what the States have gone through private and individual giving sources which has what BP’s sponsorship money buys. of great British institutions, though in fact all the over the last 20 or so years. In the early 1990's significantly impacted and even closed down The Deepwater Horizon disaster spurred the parties involved are global brands. in the States, there were huge agonising debates arts organisations. Seriously, if you ask any arts campaign to free the arts from oil company BP hopes that the subliminal association when arts organisations were offered generous professional in the States, they will think we are funding, and it met with a swift and blunt of its brand with the transcendent values support from Philip Morris during a time when crazy to adopt their philanthropic models. response: the Royal Opera House, Tate, the still commonly linked to art will act as a the National Endowment for the Arts (the British Museum and the National Portrait counterweight to the torrent of filth—pollution, equivalent of ACE) was under attack. Gallery would keep taking the money. Serota’s environmental devastation, political corruption justification: ‘You don’t abandon friends and violence—which its business continually Salette Gresset was an Arts Council Officer at Arts Council England from 1999 to 2010. She is now a trans-atlantic Live Art because they have a temporary difficulty.’ produces. That against the images of oil- Cultural Manager with expertise in interdisciplinary and socially-engaged practices, based in Brooklyn, NY. She was an Arts While corporations acquired the legal status of laden waves and wildlife, dead workers, Officer at Arts Council England from 1999 until 2010. persons to exploit freedom of speech laws for illegal dumping and support for the genocidal their propaganda and to freely purchase political Colombian military, we will set the subterranean influence, the idea that one can be your ‘friend’ memory of BP’s logo gracing an exhibition that is plainly absurd; and should loyalty always we have enjoyed. trump other ethical impulses? You may choose The obvious contradiction—and this is why to reflect on your choice of friends when they overt corporate propaganda is played down in bring about their own difficulties by criminality art venues—is that the alliance of art and oil and greed. pollute the very ideals which it hopes to exploit. The motives for both sides are obvious: Unlike the life of a turtle or a gull, though, arts bodies lean heavily on corporate money the cleanliness of art’s ideals is an ideological since the state has increasingly shrank from its fabrication, produced by the various powers role in subsidising the arts, and as they relish that have built elite culture and its institutions. the freedom from popular opinion that comes Protests usefully highlight the contradiction; but with the use of tax money (the furore over the more positively, we should be making a public purchase of Carl André’s ‘bricks’ is merely the culture that has no need of such powers and most famous example, and it led Tate to set up such money.

Julian Stallabrass lectures in modern and contemporary art at the Courtauld Institute of Art. He is author of several books including 'Art Incorporated' (2004) and is an editorial board member of New Left Review and Third Text. His photography has been exhibited and published internationally. He curated the 2008 Brighton Photo Biennial, 'Memory of Fire: The War of Images' and 'Images of War'.

70 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 71 72 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 73 RAOUL MARTINEZ CONRAD ATKINSON

Who should be allowed to fund our national that sees the logic of the market (one-dollar-one- Interview transcript subjects like strikes and mercury or thalidomide institutions? Unless we're willing to accept vote) and its history of wealth-concentration, I don’t think there’s any subject that artists can’t and landmines. So we’ve come a long way. the sponsorship of fascist groups and foreign supplanting the logic of democracy (one-person- tackle. At the Power Lecture in '83 I said “You A corporate mentality is a culture, and they dictators, we clearly believe a line must be one-vote). And so if we advocate democracy, never know when you’re gonna need art, and all have basically the same culture. The profit drawn somewhere. So the issue is not whether we must challenge the unaccountable power you never know where art is gonna come from, motive is embedded in their culture and they’re we draw a line, but where we draw it. In the of corporations taking over every aspect of and you never know what art is gonna look like, not going to change. case of BP, I believe there is a strong case for our cultural and political life. For me at least, and you never know what art is gonna do and You have to think of Diego Rivera saying “If placing them on the wrong side of that line. challenging forms of corporate sponsorship of you never know what art is for.” it isn’t propaganda it isn’t art”. It’s a confusing In the past it was acceptable for tobacco the arts is one, perhaps mainly symbolic, way of If you can cast your mind back to my quote if you're in late capitalist system, it's companies to openly sponsor national challenging the wider 'corporatisation' of society. generation, Liverpool in the 1960's, and the not confusing if you think that current artistic institutions - today there is a taboo against it Like any artist I want my work to be seen, Royal Academy Schools, the subjects for art and practices are in the main propaganda for the (the BP Portrait Award was initially sponsored and having my work selected to hang in the the media were very limited in England. status quo. The best definition of art at this by a tobacco company). Our addiction to fossil National Portrait Gallery was a real honour. I did I remember my first solo show, it was a moment in time is by the seminal punk rock fuels, however, is far more dangerous than not face a dilemma in submitting a portrait to mixture of videotapes and photographs, and the group in the madness of New York in the our addiction to tobacco - there is no reason, the BP Portrait Award, as a private boycott on ICA in London applied for funding for my show seventies, the Ramones. They said “Art is what therefore, the taboo surrounding tobacco my part, I knew, would achieve nothing. If, en STRIKE. And we got a letter from Peter Bird separates the truly desperate from those merely sponsorship should not be extended to oil masse, artists decided to boycott BP-sponsored of the Arts Council saying “we don’t consider seeking entertainment” and I would add “merely companies too. If society decides it genuinely institutions perhaps it could be a worthwhile video an art form". So that’s a background to decoration”. I’m conflicted right now I can’t values institutions like the National Portrait tactic. However, right now, no such movement my generation, not only were we not supposed decide whether the art of our times is the scar Gallery and Tate Modern, it can provide money exists. The next best thing is for artists to do anything that wasn’t a painting or a tissue of western civilization or the cosmetic to support them. associated with these institutions to speak out. bronze sculpture, we weren’t supposed to tackle surgery changing its real face. Though there are good reasons to challenge As an artist I certainly don't want my work to specifically the sponsorship of companies like be part of a PR campaign for corporations that Conrad Atkinson is an internationally renowned fine artist, whose work often focuses on subjects of social and political concern. BP (and Shell which sponsors institutions such are a threat to our democracy and environment. Eleven of his works are held in the Tate Collection, including ‘Asbestos, The Lungs of Capitalism.’ He is Emeritus Professor of Art as the Southbank Centre), I think it's crucial What's most important, it seems to me, is at University of California at Davis. to situate this debate about sponsorship and preventing such companies from benefiting from funding in a wider context. As I see it, the the good PR associated with arts sponsorship. problem with arts sponsorship is a symptom of a The acquiescence of artists to corporate interests far greater problem of funding that stems from a is a far more significant statement than anything system that concentrates vast amounts of wealth that might be conveyed by their art. Our world in the hands of a few. There are problems of is our biggest canvas, and our choices our most funding and sponsorship in every area of society, important brushstrokes. from education and health, to the media and the The 'corporatisation' of society puts everyone, arts. In the US, for instance, almost all forms not just artists, in a difficult position. The of media are owned by one of just five or six journalist who must pander to media owners corporations. who make and break careers. The politician In the realm of politics we see corporations who must please the powerful corporations they in the US, especially energy companies, giving depend on for funding. Professionals in all fields hundreds of millions of dollars to both parties are in a difficult position. To earn a living many in election campaigns and many millions more of us have to serve interests we strongly disagree year on year to lobbyists and politicians, thereby with. Progressive change depends, however, on exerting their influence in proportion to their finding ways to challenge the forces that subvert wealth - a blatant subversion of the democratic our democracies and trash our environment. process. The problem of arts sponsorship has to be situated in this wider context - a context

Raoul Martinez is a portrait painter and documentary film-maker. His work has been exhibited as part of the BP Portrait Award at The National Portrait Gallery for the past two years’ running: ‘Howard Zinn – A Peoples’ Historian’ (2011), and ‘Alan Rickman’ (2010).

74 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 75 CHARLES THOMSON – STUCKISTS SAI MURAI – OIL-SMEARED VISION

The arguments for BP sponsorship of art are is the BP rehangs of Tate Britain, the net result It is difficult for anyone who is absorbed rocket fuel of social change – can ease our not that BP is an outstanding example of of which is a collective groan, when the public’s in, and absorbed by, our dominating Euro- painful transition to sustainable, low energy, doing good in the world, but that art needs the favourite paintings end up being rehung in the American culture to imagine a culture beyond locally-based and decentralised cultures based money. The stance is pragmatism over ethics, storeroom. The Tate managed quite happily for oil. Oil smears everything around us – our food, on community not competition. Artists and and undermines the essence of art, which years without such disruptions. clothes, housing, transport, entertainment, and culture creators the world over thus have a duty derives its strength from integrity. That is why Public institutions need to be run on ethical our vision. to enable this transition by engaging with art the opposition to such sponsorship comes from principles and should be responsive to public As we speed blindly along plugged into not for profit or solely for arts sake but rather artists, whose primary concern is for art, and the dissatisfaction with their policies. The viewing of sat-nav on our air conditioned oh-so-important – in the words of Ken Saro-Wiwa – so that this support for it is from bureaucrats, whose primary art with a constant reminder of abusive business day-to-day business, we miss the visions and art does something “to transform the lives of concern is institutional. practices is no longer acceptable. If it means less alternative ways of being that lie beyond our a community, of a nation” and ultimately our The fact is that art does not need the money. funding, then so be it. windscreens, widescreens, mobile screens... We world. By encouraging wary passengers to trust Most of the innovations of Modernism have Necessity has been the mother of invention rarely have the time to ponder where we have the drunk driver, to marvel at and be grateful taken place in impoverished circumstances, for artists – and still is for most artists. It come from and where we are actually heading... for their increasingly threadbare seats, Tate et funded only by an artist’s vision. Monet, Van can produce marvellous results and forces a If we pause to look in the rear view mirror, we al prove themselves complicit as co-pilots on Gogh, Picasso and their successors succeeded in clarification of priorities. Maybe the Tate does would see that these last few metres of our our ecocidal journey: fogging the windows and creating new means of art, despite (or perhaps not need 50 or so curators after all. Or maybe human journey – powered by the super fuel of oil preventing the many sustainable holistic routes because of) an absence of Arts Council or they could do some rehanging themselves – in – have sped badly off-course. down the mountain from being seen. In terms business funding. Ideas are free. moderation. The era of cheap energy and industrial growth of culture and, in the cultural long-term, it is Sponsorship of visual arts institutions is often is behind us. Undercarriage splattered with road- therefore not important that the Tate, the British superfluous and benefits curatorial indulgence at Charles Thomson, kill and crushed fauna, we now find ourselves Museum, the Guardian, the BBC and other the expense of public interest. A classic example Co-founder, The Stuckists atop the great peak of a mountain. With the established culture-capturers survive. What is stubbornness and ego of the car driver lost on important is the survival of a diverse human The Stuckists are artists who are pro-contemporary figurative painting with ideas, and anti-conceptual art. Stuckists have route, the drivers of our machine insist we must species and alternative cultures. regularly demonstrated dressed as clowns against the Turner Prize and against BP sponsorship of the Tate. Stuckism, founded plough forward: no turning back, ignore the For all who have benefited from the brief in 1999, has grown to an international art movement with over 220 groups in 50 countries. warning signs, the approaching cliff, press harder historical bubble of complex energy-rich on the accelerator... There is only one way for industrial society it is our grave responsibility this road-rage ecocidal juggernaut consumer to future generations to manage the inevitable culture to go. crash, navigate our escape from peak oil/ A growing number of passengers are now climate chaos and to make reparations for the choosing to leap from the windows of this ecological destruction wrought by our colonial crashing vehicle. Outside the confines of the fossil fuel folly. capitalist machine, creative imagination – the

Sai MuRai is a poet, writer, publisher, graphic designer of Bajan/Afrikan/Pomfretian heritage. In a former life he worked in advertising. He is creative director of artist/activist organisation Liquorice Fish, editor of four poetry anthologies, a member of Virtual Migrants, a facilitator on Shake! and a poet coach with Leeds Young Authors.

76 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 77 DAVE BEECH MATTHEW HERBERT

Dear Policymaker, who gain a competitive advantage by being Of all the areas of human endeavour, art should time when urgent action is required to slow We the undersigned demand you do everything associated with something that they are not). be the first place we turn for self-reflection. It is consumption of fossil fuels. Oil companies in your power to Abolish Advertising (which is We have the largest and most diverse global even more absurd therefore that Tate should be should not be allowed to advertise or sponsor nothing but the monopolisation of public opinion culture of contemporary art, performing arts and sponsored by a company that is as irresponsible anything in the first place. After all, it’s not like formation by the wealthy minority who control literature that the world has ever seen, but it is and polluting as BP. Day one of any critical art our society needs any extra encouragement to commerce). We have the best technologies of stunted and distorted by the narrow interests theory course would dissect the logo of BP and consume more oil. publishing and the dissemination of information of commercial companies and the financial show it to be the most cynical and barefaced Meanwhile, we must insist that these that the world has ever seen but it is stunted and interests of those leaders in the cultural field piece of modern visual corporate propaganda. institutions, so comfortable in political harmony distorted by the narrow interests of commercial who get into bed with the corporate sector. Why is Tate therefore so keen to have it attached with today’s polluters, answer us: what is their companies and the business interests of those Art and culture needs to be protected from to its proud collection of modern art? Work, in official position on the oil spill in the Gulf of who sell advertising space. The public sphere the market, not ushered into it. This is the part, based on the assumption that art should Mexico? Or of problems in the Niger Delta? Or needs to be preserved for the public. This is the responsibility of any government that has a challenge complacency, disguise, orthodoxy and of BP’s safety record? Or of tar sands extraction responsibility of any government that calls itself cultural policy! Corporate Sponsorship of the Arts authority. in Canada? Or the Iraq war for that matter? In democratic. Advertising puts the public sphere steers the institutions of art towards the interests It is not just one company or one institution trading our cultural legacies so nakedly for such in the hands of those who can pay. We demand of big business. We demand that Corporate though, the oily tentacles of both BP and tainted cash, some of Britain’s most powerful that advertising is wiped off the face of the earth Sponsorship is wiped off the face of the earth to Shell have wrapped themselves around our stages for creative expression have knowingly to put the precious activity of opinion formation put the precious activity of cultural production most prestigious cultural institutions and at a undermined the very integrity of that expression. in the hands of all! and distribution in the hands of all! We the undersigned demand you do Matthew Herbert is an electronic artist and composer who pioneered found sound in modern electronic music, and has made everything in your power to Abolish Corporate Sign here: over 20 albums including most recently one out of the lifecycle of a pig. He has worked with numerous artists and contributed Sponsorship of the Arts (which is nothing but music to several films, most recently ‘Life in a Day’ (2011). the utilization of independent, critical and innovative culture for the marketing of firms

Dave Beech is an artist in the collective Freee, teaches at Chelsea College of Art and writes for Art Monthly. He exhibited at the Liverpool Biennial and BAL Utrecht in 2010, Pratt Institute Manhattan in 2011, and edited the book ‘Beauty’ (2009) for MIT/ THE CARBON TOWN CRYER Whitechapel. www.myspace.com/carbontowncryer

Songs: Celebrate This!, Atmospheric Pressure, Shell Sells Suicide, Deepwater.

The Carbon Town Cryer thinks it’s time for some crazy, heartfelt, radical music to help inspire us and to propel us into the most positive future possible.

78 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 79 CECILIA WEE JOHN HARTLEY

20 April 2020 Innovation and creativity are at the heart of What influence might funders have on ethical battleground of opinions within state-funded Dear fellow citizens, tackling this enormous challenge, which is the philanthropy? ‘bureaucracy’ (a word built from the French for This is a momentous occasion – we would never first industrial revolution that we have been able While ethics are lived by individuals, they desk and Greek for power). The desk does have have got here without you. to predict.43 And in this way, art and artists have are also encouraged or challenged by collective power in many ways (both good and bad), but it It’s 10 years since the Deepwater Horizon oil been playing an important role in defining the positions such as those of organisations, funders is not as radical a site for change as is practice. spill and much has changed. future. Moreover, by involving everyone – not and governments. It is often said that Arts Arts Councils do not produce ideas. They help Whilst the problem of oil scarcity has just scientists or industry experts – we are able Council England (ACE) exists at arm's length others have and share them. jeopardised safe access to fairly-priced housing, to appreciate the benefits of seeing a situation from government, a figurative description that Artists and arts organisations should consider food, education, healthcare and other human from the edges of the system to be more open- presumably positions arts practice somewhere in their resilience. Resilience is the capacity to rights, it has also spurred us on to work together minded, open-hearted and open-willed.44 the hand. But which end of this arm really starts manage or accommodate shock, for instance across disciplines, beliefs and countries, to We still have a long way to go but the the moves? Dave Beech once categorised Arts to revenue, building fabric, staff or audience find solutions to the crisis in energy, material amazing renewable energy installations, Council England as, at best, bridging government perception. In light of this, weighing the resources and perspective. inventive use of materials, our changing attitude and insurrection, suggesting a more lively push benefits of associating an arts organisation with We are increasingly enlivened by a positive towards consumption and the esteem we are and pull between the ends of this limb. However industries implicated in social destabilisation, and abundant culture – connected, collaborative growing for human labour, are all testimony recognisable such an 'arms length' metaphor militarisation and pollution on a vast scale and conscious of other humans, as well as other to the strength of new societal and economic is in practice, it is nonetheless true that ACE becomes a very practical responsibility. living beings. By rejecting a model of business models that we are building together. has interdependencies with a range of publics Accepting sponsorship funding from oil that is driven by the success of the 'lone wolf', resulting in what Buckminster Fuller would companies will enable projects, but it will also an economic culture dominated by fear, mistrust Thank you, recognise as ‘tensegrity’. shift an organisation’s relationship with artists, and competition42, we are now proving that Your fellow citizens Given the constituencies served by an audiences and other collaborators. This is an money is not the only measure of value. organisation like ACE, with what authority and equation that every arts organisation must to what end might it influence oil sponsorship? understand for itself. The finance upon which Cecilia Wee is a London-based independent curator/writer/broadcaster concerned with sustainability. She attended a course ACE has no stated policy with regard to other a project is built exerts a gravitational pull and on alternative financial models at Schumacher College in July 2011. This piece is indebted to the tutors and colleagues she ethical funding issues. For instance (unlike the can influence what does or doesn’t get said, who met there. Wellcome Trust) it does not proscribe mixed does or doesn’t come and ultimately the location project funding from tobacco companies. the project occupies in the arts ecology. As the Rather, this behaviour is led by practitioners and public purse tightens, ethical choices could have KENNY YOUNG audiences. If a national funder were to specify sharper short-term costs. particular types of business relationships (even Emergent practices can seed change in http://vimeo.com/lozzy/kenito ‘Tate Necessarily So’ by Rhythms if, by law it could), which end of the arm would powerful ways and responsible arts managers del Mundo featuring Kenito is a be the stronger then? When both the arts and must develop their economic dependencies with light-hearted look at the Tar Sands government feel the same way about desired care, but there is a further more essential issue situation and BP’s collusion. change we call that ‘best practice’, something to consider when the arts come to understand funders are in a good place to develop and the implications of their working practices. spread as with ACE’s support for the reduction Because ultimately, on a very human scale, of carbon emissions within arts practice. But, art without conscience risks hollowness. It is it is not clear that comparable concord could only artists that can approach the very heart of be found regarding the economic interests of this question and ask if their ethical behaviour extraction industries. Using public funding of nourishes their work or weakens it. the arts as the tool for change would locate the

John Hartley is an artist, PhD researcher at University College Falmouth and Co-Director of Difference Exchange. He was Arts and Ecology Strategy Officer at Arts Council England from 2007 to 2010.” Rhythms del Mundo was set up by Artists Project Earth (APE) founder Kenny Young. APE aims to create a better world by bringing the power of music and the arts to 21st century challenges. It supports effective projects and awareness raising initiatives to combat climate change, and raises funds for natural disaster relief. APE has collaborated with international musicians such as Coldplay, U2, Bob Dylan, Gorillaz, Arctic Monkeys, Dizzee Rascal, Green Day, Amy Winehouse, The Killers, Rolling Stones and many others to produce three fundraising albums to date: Rhythms Del Mundo: Cuba; RDM: Classics; and RDM: Revival. Their new album RDM AFRICA is due out shortly.

80 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 81 PLATFORM DR. WALLACE HEIM

A cultural shift away from oil is not only The shift away from oil takes place in many Sponsorship is a catalysing word. It allows profit cultures, environments which, at a distance, necessary, but inevitable. From this vantage municipal sites as well as in our personal to change from the excess of money garnered are less visible, and for whom there has been point, we can look around our homes, cities, daily experience. From the infrastructure of from one activity into the buoyant support no recompense, in the language of ethics. From galleries and beyond to visualise the coming transport, to the shareholdings of pension funds, of another. Like bequest, inheritance, grant, both the externalisation and the negligence culture. An era in which oil is no longer the from where the food we eat is grown, to the it implies benevolence. It is also a cleansing there are legacies, not such a benevolent word, central product constructing the spaces we democratisation of energy resources. For a fair word, allowing the spills, slops, residues of against which there has not been sufficient occupy, no longer the fundamental fuel of the and just transition to a post-oil era, we see the the excesses of one activity to become the provision, as profit has moved to softer places. economies that sustain our lives. creativity and collaborative practices of artists as naturalised, smooth bankrolling of another, Like to sponsorships, which are necessary In 2009 during Platform’s two-month essential to this process. Cultural institutions are maybe less incontinent, activity. for cultural institutions. But to perpetuate the residency C Words: Capital, Carbon, Culture, a key space to nurture that evolution. This accountancy of purification has a valorisation of oil profiteering is to not admit the Climate at Arnolfini in Bristol, a futuristic auction Our society teems with individuals and classical necessity about it. It was necessary scale of the imperative to move to other forms of contemporary artefacts was performed by organisations who use their energy and for ancient Greeks to render slavery invisible of energy production. Any view that cultural public interest investigators Spinwatch and art imagination to find ways that we might to maintain their way of life. It could not be activity absolves institutions from this imperative auctioneers Hollington & Kyprianou with Tamasin live that are not built on the destruction of admitted, that is, until it had to be, when is a phoney justification for inertia. The changes Cave. Objects ranging from bottled water and the atmosphere, fragile ecologies and the that way of life had to change in order for life needed will have to be more than those done by a golf ball to a mobile phone and an double- livelihoods of others. The arts are a crucible to continue. In the transfer of profits from oil proxy, by emblematic display, by trading. The buggy pushchair were among those selected to of social imagination and they should support companies to the incomes of cultural institutions, citizens and artists provoking the Tate and others represent the current age. During the residency these endeavours, or at the very least not many layers of necessity have been operating. over their sponsorship by BP and Shell are we held a one day conference called Embedded!, undermine them. But today the visitor to the To receive the benefit of those profits requires asking those institutions to do more than change which included a tour from the electricity meter gallery, museum, theatre or opera house is not admitting that these excesses were made their portfolios. They are asking them, I think, in the basement to the loft of Arnolfini’s building. surrounded by the names of BP, Shell and other through the externalisation of the full costs of oil to act as cultural and political entities capable The walking tour discussion examined arts oil companies, and every logo announces that exploration, mining and refining, in the language of responding to that imperative materially, institutions’ hidden investment in climate change these corporations are powerful, inevitable of economics. And, they were made through the imaginatively, financially. such as sponsorship and pension funds, and and benign. The choice for Tate, and all the intended negligence of the harm done to people, also considered low carbon best organisational other arts institutions that continue to accept practice regarding the transportation of artists, BP sponsorship, is how soon they will choose Dr. Wallace Heim is a writer and researcher on performance and nature. She is Chair of the Platform Board of Trustees. curators and artefacts. to get ahead of the game and commence the separation of oil from culture.

Platform has published several books and numerous reports on oil issues, exhibited in art galleries across the UK and Europe, and participated in a wide range of academic and activist conferences and gatherings.

Pages 76, 83 and 85: Liberate Tate, Collapse, July 2010. Molasses, papier mache. Three figures dressed in black entered the north room of the British Museum and ritualistically poured oil from large eggs bearing BP logos in front of an Easter Island statue, an emblem of a lost civilisation. No artefacts were harmed in the making of this performance. Photos: Amy Scaife

82 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 83 BRIDGET MCKENZIE RICHARD CAMERON WILSON

Since the Deepwater Horizon accident BP diminishing the importance of the environment. In October 2009, the oil company Trafigura hit The Trafigura case highlights some of the has been working hard. Working hard to fix This is the ‘sustainability conundrum’: that the headlines after obtaining a "super-injunction" dangers of accepting corporate sponsorship its image and its bank balance. Supposedly it it is possible to call yourself sustainable gagging the media from reporting a leaked from a large oil company. On the one hand, has a renewed focus on sustainability, but you while actively destroying the planet or being document relating to the 2006 Probo Koala the money on offer can make a big difference don’t even have to read between the lines to implicated in its destruction. I argue that very toxic dumping incident on the Ivory Coast. The to a struggling arts organisation. On the other, see that this is pure greenwash. The headline few cultural organisations have really addressed move backfired spectacularly, and Trafigura were corporate sponsorship is seldom anything other of BP’s new sustainability strategy is this: this conundrum in order to put environmental quickly engulfed in just the kind of bad publicity than a hard-nosed financial transaction, through “We are determined that BP will be a safer, sustainability at the heart of their mission. they had been seeking to avoid. which a company is seeking to further its own more risk-aware business. We will deliver Tate has over 70 green champions across the At this point, questions began to be asked business objectives. on our commitments from the Gulf Coast organisation. Are they ever invited to address about Trafigura's charitable activities. A small For a business with a poor human rights incident and work hard to earn back the trust the ethics of sponsorship, as they work towards London art gallery faced heavy criticism through record, public philanthropy can be a relatively in our operations. We will rebuild value for our raising over £200 million in sponsorship for social media for its role in organising the cheap way of staving off political pressure to shareholders by re-establishing our competitive expansions to Tate’s London sites? Trafigura Art Prize. The Cynthia Corbett Gallery clean up its act and compensate its victims. position within the sector by playing our part in Knowing what we know now, cultural eventually decided to dump their corporate Charities that accept corporate patronage in such meeting the world’s growing demand for energy, organisations can no longer continue to be sponsor after several nominees withdrew from cases risk making themselves appear complicit as well as participating in the transition to a low- consciously complicit with this ecocidal the competition. in a company's efforts to deflect criticism. Amid carbon economy.” industrial system. Humans are the only known "We feel that the recent events involving a succession of oil-related scandals in recent This says, quite overtly, that BP can only be animal species to destroy their habitat. How Trafigura are detracting from the main purpose years, charities are having to think hard about sustainable by sustaining its own wealth, which can we live with that indicator for humanity of the prize, which is to celebrate emerging and whether the short-term financial gains of oil depends on increased extraction, which depends without seeking to change it? The only really newly established artists", the gallery's director sponsorship are worth the long-term risks to on safer methods so they don’t lose share value. sound function of a cultural organisation is told the press their reputations. It is true that BP is also investing something to ensure the evolution of humanity to build towards renewable power. But how much? Over its capacity to sustain life on the planet. This Richard Cameron Wilson is an author, most recently of ‘Don’t Get Fooled Again’ (2008), who was involved in setting up the the next five years, it will spend only 25% of means working towards overcoming: infantilism, ‘Alternative Trafigura Arts Prize.’ what it costs them to clean up after the Gulf addiction to money, the lack of empathy and incident. At the same time, it will spend vastly the hubristic competitive thrust that destroys life more on new techniques for tar sands extraction in its path to success. More positively, it gives and fracking. The Albertan tar sands is the most cultural organisations opportunities to help us destructive project on the planet. If it continues, imagine non-destructive ways of living, using it alone will contribute to a 2ºC temperature rise. new materials and smart technologies. To do this BP’s Sunrise project is helping to expand the they can form partnerships with companies for operation by enabling more and more extraction. mutual benefits, not just a simple transaction of Our actions look set to raise the temperature by money. 4ºC to 5ºC before the century is out, unless we I feel anxious about being seen to take a outlaw fracking, deepwater drilling, tar sands, radical position, especially given that my family’s deforestation and other ecocidal tactics, and income depends on bodies like Tate trusting me. replace them with alternatives already proven or However, longer-term reasoning overrides this. within our grasp. We need to think differently now about what I have to say, BP is not alone in its it means to be radical. Bill McKibben said in perversion of the concept of sustainability. his speech to 10,000 young people at Power There are 3,000 large companies causing $2.5 Shift: “you are not the radicals in this fight. The trillion environmental damage a year. Many radicals are the people who are fundamentally organisations twist the triad of economic, social altering the composition of the atmosphere. That and environmental sustainability by isolating and is the most radical thing people have ever done.”

Bridget McKenzie is director of cultural consultancy Flow Associates. She has previously managed education programmes at Tate and the British Library.

84 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 85 ABOUT US like oil, which we have to see on their doorstep. pated Ai Wei Wei’s Sunflower squeezed, spilled, squashed, Take our performance at the Seeds installation that was to PLATFORM, released and poured. Our Tate Summer Party when follow in the same location of ART NOT OIL & intervention Dead in the Water Tate celebrated 20 years Tate Modern’s Turbine Hall. (May 2010) took place during of their partnership with Other performances have LIBERATE TATE Tate Modern’s 10th anniver- BP (against the ongoing included Human Cost (April sary celebration No Soul for backdrop of the Deepwater 2011, on the anniversary of Sale. As BP was creating the Horizon spill!). Licence The Gulf of Mexico spill), PLATFORM ART NOT OIL LIBERATE TATE world’s largest oil painting in to Spill (June 2010) was a a durational intervention the Gulf of Mexico, dead fish symbolic act designed to within the figurative and birds attached to black create maximum disruption sculpture exhibition Single helium balloons were re- to the ‘celebrations’ and Form at Tate Britain. In leased into the rafters of Tate draw attention back from the performance a naked Modern’s Turbine Hall. the canapés and champagne figure lay on the ground Deliberately abject and to the horrors of the Gulf covered with another oil-like sometimes foul, our work is of Mexico. As Liberate Tate substance (an image of which Liberate Tate is an art the shadow of an industry spilled hundreds of gallons appeared on the front page of Platform brings together collective exploring the role the reality of which arts of molasses at the entrance the Financial Times the next environmentalists, artists, of creative intervention in organisations do not want to Tate Britain, two elegantly day). human rights campaigners, social change. We aim to dressed ladies inside the Our alterative audio tour educationalists and commu- Art Not Oil is a project of free art from the grips of gallery (going by the names of Tate, with sound works by Liberate Tate’s performance Human nity activists. This vital mix activist group Rising Tide UK. the oil industry, primarily of Toni [Hayward] and Bobbi commissioned artists, allows enables us to create innova- It aims to encourage artists focusing on Tate – a public Cost features on the front page of the Financial Times, 22.4.11. [Dudley]) released another anyone visiting Tate to be part tive projects driven by a need - and would-be artists - to institution owned by, and Photo: Amy Scaife oil spill from beneath their of a Liberate Tate durational for social and ecological create work that explores the existing for, the public – and bouffant dresses, performance in an unsanc- justice. damage that companies like its sponsorship deal with BP. a “relatively tiny tioned installation inside the Our methods have devel- BP and Shell are doing to the We believe Tate is supporting one, compared galleries providing a new oped over 25 years. We blend planet, and the role art can BP, rather than the other to the size of the experience of the presence of the power of art to transform play in counteracting that way around by cleaning the gallery”. BP within these spaces. with the clear goals of cam- damage. corporations tarnished public Our work as The future for Liberate paigning; rigourous in-depth Since 2004 it has collected image with the culture of the Liberate Tate Tate? There are more art- research with the visions of the work of hundreds of UK’s leading art museum. brings together works and commissions in alternative futures. artists to form the Art Not We formed in January 2010 the languages of the pipeline (sic). Don’t just Since 1995, a substantial Oil and Shell’s Wild Lie when Tate tried to censor a art and activ- watch this space. Use your proportion of our work has collections, exhibited in workshop on art and activism ism. We speak creativity and voice. Our focused on the operations of galleries all around the UK. because of its sponsorship directly to Tate, invitation for artists, art lovers UK oil and gas companies It also produced the 2010 Art programme. They failed communities of and other concerned mem- and their impacts on commu- Not Oil Diary. and we formed in direct artists, activ- bers of the public to act to nities and ecosystems around resistance to this attempt to ists and to the ensure that Tate ends its oil the world. Projects looking limit freedom of expression. wider public and sponsorship remains open. at wider issues around social Working creatively together, media. Imagine culture without oil. and ecological justice have we are dedicated to taking Sunflower Free art from oil! been established in parallel. creative disobedience against (Septem- Liberate Tate often Tate until it drops its oil ber 2010), an has open meetings or company funding. oil painting performances where wider Our chosen form is squeezed from participation is encouraged. performance, our artworks tubes of black See www.liberatetate.org for site-specific and self-curated, paint, comment- previous actions and how to necessarily situated in the ed on the green- get in touch. honourable tradition of insti- wash behind No artworks are harmed tutional critique. BP’s green and in the making of any of our Our medium includes yellow sunflower performances. many substances that look logo and antici-

86 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 87 WHAT NEXT VISITING A TATE GALLERY? WORK IN AN ARTS INSTITUTION? Fill in a comment card or questionnaire with Platform has developed a workshop to ACT TO END TATE OIL SPONSORSHIP your views - look out for these print items support organisations in critically discussing with 'WHAT DO YOU THINK?' on them and issues around ethical funding. place in the boxes provided. Contact [email protected].

Whatever your views are on art and GOT A TATE MEMBERSHIP? ARE YOU PART OF AN ARTS Join together with other Tate members to ORGANISATION OR GROUP? oil sponsorship, express yourself! press Tate on these issues – together we are Do the Tate à Tate Audio Tour, and follow it up stronger. For more information email with a workshop with Platform exploring the If you want to see an end to art's relationship If you meet any senior manager in person or [email protected] artworks and the issues further. Contact info@ with the oil industry, here we set out some of when they are at a public event, do make your (subject heading: Tate Members). platformlondon.org to make arrangements. the ways in which you can act towards that views known. aim. We focus here largely on Tate although WORK AT TATE? CREATE many of these actions can be directed at other ☛☛ Let Tate Trustees know your views. It is widely know that many Tate staff are Make art not climate change! Creative activ- cultural institutions with links to BP and against their employer supporting BP or at ism in Britain is in the ascendance, with many Shell in particular. Tate Trustees are from 'different backgrounds, least feel very uncomfortable with the rela- groups merging art and climate action. As well areas of expertise and perspectives'. You can tionship. Find each other and keep raising as Liberate Tate and Art Not Oil, check out Cultural institutions should not and do not find them listed in the 'Governance' section these issues internally. You are far from alone! groups like Rising Tide UK and Climate Rush, need to continue taking money from polluters of the Tate website. Write to one or more. both of which have targeted Tate and its links like BP. But, they will continue to do so if not with oil. enough people take action. Lobby Tate Trustees with your views: Bob and Roberta Smith, Wolfgang Tillmans USE YOUR VOICE and Tomma Abts are presently the artists on Let cultural institutions know how you feel Tate’s Board. about their acceptance of climate-changing funding. Don’t forget to keep it polite. Feel If you are a Tate member, do underline this. free to use the evidence elsewhere in this Tate does not allow much space for member publication to back up your points. voice in decision-making and channels are limited. There is Tate Members, a 'connected' ☛☛ Write to Nicholas Serota Director of Tate charity that also has a Board, the chair of and copy in Deputy Director Alex Beard. which is broadcaster Jon Snow, and an annual Tate Members AGM. You will find them listed on the Tate website (click 'About Tate' and Senior Staff are KEEP INFORMED AND CONNECTED listed under Organisation. Present directors ☛☛ Follow 'End oil-sponsorship of the arts' include Dr Penelope Curtis, Director of Tate on Facebook and @liberatetate and Britain, the gallery most associated with BP, @PlatformLondon on Twitter for Rebecca Williams, Director of Development further updates and opportunities to get (responsible for sponsorship) and Marc Sands involved with performances. (responsible for Tate's brand and relationships with 'audiences'). ☛☛ Email Liberate Tate: [email protected] Tate Modern and join the Platform mailing list: Bankside [email protected] London SE1 9TG (subject heading: Mailing List)

88 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 89 P. 6 P. 64 Liberate Tate Ali Ferzat Human Cost http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5Mko4Yzmls April 2011 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4-vGbsBLKM

P. 6 P. 65 Anthony Burrill Ahmed Bassiouny Oil & Water Do Not Mix 30 Days of Running in Place October 2010 June 2011 http://vimeo.com/15770806 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF7eDNvNL8E

P. 10 P. 68 HeHe The Institute for the Art and Practice of Dissent at Home Is there a horizon on the deepwater? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUuWz_6Dyb8&feature=playe March 2011 r_embedded http://vimeo.com/21848081

P. 10 P. 69 Liberate Tate Reverend Billy and the Church of Earthalujah Licence to Spill The Exorcism of BP, 2011 June 2010 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Lz7ECeOCWQ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPpWPbEPspY

P. 33 P. 79 Ruppe Koselleck, Takeover BP Mark Brown Ongoing since October 2001. Since October 2001 German artist Ruppe Carbon Town Cryer Koselleck has made artworks from oil spill residues, including from www.myspace.com/carbontowncryer Louisiana in 2011. With the proceeds from each artwork sale, Koselleck buys shares in BP, with the ultimate plan to takeover and dismantle the company. http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=FlTLbPf3jAY

P. 44 P. 80 Voices From Outside The Gallery. In these interview transcripts a fisher- Kenny Young man, a writer, a film-maker and an indigenous rights campaigner give http://vimeo.com/lozzy/kenito their very personal experiences of oil extraction, the Gulf of Mexico catastrophe and subsequent clean-up operation, and BP’s role in supporting Mubarak’s repressive regime in Egypt. Each interview is available to listen to in full online. http://blog.platformlondon.org/2011/10/10/testimony-audio/

90 CULTURE BEYOND OIL CULTURE BEYOND OIL 91 REFERENCES

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