Various artists / Think : Brexit / 2018-2020
Project Report
Think : Brexit : Various artists PROJECT REPORT
1. Introduction / The Project
2. The Artist
3. Events One-off events October Brexfast Farmer's Market - Walker & Bromwich People's Vote March London People's Vote March Huntly Reply from public to Colin Clark MP Lunch with Ian Hudghton, MEP Town is the Garden Farmer's Market - Seasonal Café - BrEGGsit November Brexfast Farmer's Market - How Multinational is your Mincemeat? December Brexfast January Brexfast Think: Brexit Open Public Meeting February Brexfast 29 March Day March Brexfast Friday Lunch: Safe European Home A Day in History Weeping Willow Day #3
4. Marketing
5. Education / Outreach Programme
6. Events Statistics
7. Media
8. Evaluation
9. Legacy
10. Funding and Thanks
11. Website Links
12. Appendices Appendix A – Documentation: People's Vote March Huntly/London Appendix B – Documentation: 29 March Day Appendix C – Documentation: A Day in History & The Last Brexfast: What is Democracy? Appendix D - Documentation: Weeping Willow Day #3 Appendix E: Reply from Colin Clark, MP Appendix F: Video from Eurovision Talk Fest Appendix G: Video from Either Side of the Fence Appendix H: Think : Brexit resource list Appendix I: Tree or No Tree diagrams Appendix J: Lyrics from Poison Apple Appendix K: Brexit Anagrams Appendix L: Transcript from Part 1 of The Last Brexfast: What is Democracy?
1. Introduction / The Project
Discuss / Debate / Act / Imagine Think : Brexit – our commitment to creative discourse.
At a time when the Brexit due date was coming nearer every day, we at Deveron Projects were (and still are) increasingly thinking about the future of our community and our country; its people, its environment, its possibilities. As a cultural organisation we explored this throughout the project, and will still welcome your ideas on how we can shape the future through positive, people-centred ideas.
What would you do? What could we do?
2. The Artists
Due to the wide-ranging nature of this varied investigation into all aspects of how the Brexit debate has and continues to shape politics, culture and international, national and local life, many artists and creative-critical voices were involved in this project.
Clemens Wilhelm Conceptual artist Clemens Wilhelm believes that everything is political. His practice has included a long distance performance walking of Die Line - the ‘scar’ marking the old East-West German border. Clemens came to us with a proposal to plant a weeping willow tree in Huntly to mark Brexit as an expression of both sorrow and optimism. The journey of the tree mirrored the polarity and ups and downs of the Brexit process. After many discussions and three large ‘planting’ ceremonies, Clemens’ artwork was realised in the eventual planting of the tree on 31 January 2020 in coincidence with Brexit. Clemens’ Weeping Willow project was interlinked with our Think : Brexit programming. More on his project alone can be found at www.deveron- projects.com/projects.
Walker & Bromwich Glasgow based collaborative duo Zoe Walker and Neil Bromwich are known for their large-scale iconic sculptural works, participatory events and exhibitions that invite audiences to imagine better worlds. At the core of their practice is the exploration of the role art can play as an active agent in society, evolving environments and situations within which people can begin to re- examine the world around them. Walker & Bromwich joined us for a week-long micro residency, culminating in an intervention at Huntly Farmers Market.
Lauren Campbell Lauren is a young art worker originally from Bristol who came to Huntly first as an intern after finishing her art history degree at Glasgow University. As part of the 2018 Year of the Young People she followed a 3 month research period by local school student Clyde Williamson. Both Lauren and Clyde worked over the period of a year with the next generation of voices in Huntly, questioning whether young people in Huntly have a say in what happens around them. Lauren’s project, People’s Act: Room to React explored young people’s perspectives on politics and the media, with Brexit very much coming into their thoughts. Lauren would go on to create her own performative work with Deveron Projects, On Either Side of the Fence - a cycled journey from Huntly to Bristol inviting public opinions on the question of Scottish Independence. For more on Lauren’s projects, please see www.deveron-projects.com/projects.
Norma D Hunter Norma D Hunter lives near Huntly. She was invited for a one year collaboration in 2011/12 to test the role of Arts Visitor; a concept inspired by the NHS Health Visitor but applied to cultural health. Norma's own practice is social engaged, encompassing performance, installation and events. She has since worked with us as a supporting artist on many projects. During Think : Brexit, she ran a community lantern-making workshop which was key in engaging families in the run-up to the A Day in History event.
David Ward David Ward, born in 1941, studied composition under Alexander Goehr and has been composing operatic works since 1962. In 1998 he moved from the island of Yell in Shetland to a farm near Huntly where he has lived ever since. His compositions range from solo sonatas to operas large and small and many things in between. In 2019, he started writing his chamber opera, B means B for Deveron Projects. For more on B means B, please see www.deveron- projects.com/projects.
3. Events
Scotland + Europe 6 August 2018, 3pm, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Part of Edinburgh Art Festival
Scotland + Europe was the first of the two-part event Arts, Borders and Migration with guest artists, policy-makers, political walkers and cooks who presented works responding to increasing border control and nationalist movements. Chaired by Amanda Catto from Creative Scotland, we discussed possibilities of Scottish Cultural presence in Europe post-Brexit; mindful of its people, cultures and environment, based on the fundamental human rights of peace, freedom, equality and citizen participation. The event featured talks and ideas by Claudia Zeiske, Deveron Projects; artists Roderick Buchanan and Ania Bas, and Alexandra Stein.
Migration + Borders 6 August 2018, 11am, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Part of Edinburgh Art Festival
Migration + Borders was the second part of the two-part event Arts, Borders and Migration. It was a series of talks with guest artists asking what the international artistic community could do locally, nationally and globally to counter movements encouraging hate, discrimination and isolation across Europe. Framed by Wolfgang Tillmans’ Anti- Brexit Campaign series, the session highlighted various artistic responses to current political situations, including international pathmaking, cross-border digital collaboration and active campaigning.
In discussion, Almir Koldzic chaired the discussions of the day. Claudia Zeiske presented her most recent project, Home to Home, detailing a 1800 km responsive pilgrimage walk from Huntly to her childhood home near Munich. Artists May Murad, Gaza, and Rachel Ashton discussed the importance of cross-border collaboration for artistic exchange. Bosnian/British filmmaker Samir Mehanović presented his recent documentary, Through Our Eyes, giving a fresh and personal insight into the Syrian conflict. Iman Tajik explored the concept of ‘performing borders’ in relation to his photographic work and experiences in Calais. The last guest was Zozan Yasar, a Kurdish journalist who was arrested many times due to her journalistic activity following the coup d'état in July 2016 in Turkey.
Lunch was provided by refugee and migrant chefs from food-led venture Küche, who told their own stories of encountering complex and emotionally charged borders.
October Brexfast 3 October 2018, 10am, 8 Castle Street, Huntly
Farming, education, travel, housing, health, employment, care, retail and art.... What changes could we expect locally after Brexit? We heard a range of local perspectives for the first in our series of Brexfast discussions on the first Wednesday of the month.
These brunch style meetings would provide a platform for open discussion over croissants and local butteries (representing continental European and ‘home’ culture), coffee and ‘strong and stable’ tea – echoing Prime Minister Theresa May’s maxim towards Brexit.
With us at this first, October event were local representatives from SNP, Lib Dem and Conservative parties, who discussed how we could prepare locally for the changes that we might face.
Farmer's Market - Walker & Bromwich 6 October 2018, 9am, Huntly Town Square
In this Farmers' Market, Walker & Bromwich engaged the public with giant badges that summed up a key set of humanitarian values which they felt were at threat by the messages inherent in the UK’s decision to leave the EU. These included Human Rights, Equality, Diversity and Dignity. This busy farmers market also saw a community apple pressing with David Easton and Jane Lockyer and Town is the Garden..
Friday Lunch: Exploring local patterns 12 October 2018, 1pm, Brander Kitchen, Huntly
Artists Gabriele Konsor and Roland Eckelt (landmade) work in Strodene, Germany with their own small rural community - in an approach similar to Deveron Projects' Town is the Venue methodology. Here in Huntly on a research micro-residency, they explored local patterns through domestic fabrics and the idea of twinning places through creative cultural exchange.
People's Vote March London 20 October 2018, 10am, Central London. In partnership with Peckham Platform.
This national event was held as a call for further public consultation prior to Brexit. In collaboration with Peckham Platform, a cohort of Deveron Projects staff, board members, artists and partners added their voice to those from the cultural community in London.
At 10am we met for Brexfast at Hyde Park Bandstand. At 12pm we joined the masses gathered and marched to Parliament Square to demand a final say on Brexit. Speeches were held at 2pm in Parliament Square.
People's Vote March Huntly 20 October 2018, 12pm, from Huntly Town Square
Building on Aberdeenshire's stance as the first council region in Scotland to back a 'People's Vote' on the final terms of Brexit, Deveron Projects aimed to add our voice to those marching in London, and to provide a protest platform for the people of the North East to make their democratic concerns seen and heard - in Huntly, in the heart of the North East. Through simultaneous twinned marching, we linked our local issues with those being raised nationally, and sent an important message that Brexit had an impact far beyond Westminster and London.
At 12pm we made banners and spoke to reporters of regional and local press as we gathered before marching from the Square to Huntly Castle. At the Castle a specially commissioned protest song, Poisoned Apple, was performed by local artist and musician Rachel Bride Ashton.
Open public letter, and reply from Colin Clark MP 20 October 2018, from 10am, Huntly Town Square
As part of the People's Vote March Huntly, we invited members of the public to sign an open letter addressed to Colin Clark, MP for Gordon. The letter allowed the public to express their individual concerns about the potential local effects of Brexit, and asked Colin Clark, as an elected representative in parliament, to make these concerns heard at a higher level.
Whilst we did not receive an explicit promise to voice our concerns at a higher level, Colin Clark did take the time to reply to us at Deveron Projects, as the sender of the letter from all who wrote in. The reply was posted via email to all who had signed wishing to be contacted, and shared with the public via our website and social media. A hard copy of the letter of reply can be found at the Deveron Projects office, the Brander Building.
Lunch with Ian Hudghton, MEP 31 October 2018, 1pm, Brander Kitchen, Huntly
Member of European Parliament and Scottish National Party, Ian Hudghton joined us for lunch. The event was advertised online and in the Huntly Express to allow any interested parties to attend. We shared food and an informal chat about all things Europe, Brexit and beyond.
In Our Hands: Seeding Change 1 November 2018, 7pm, 8 Castle Street, Huntly
In Our Hands was a film made throughout the tumultuous year of the Brexit referendum as a collaboration between the small scale farmers’ union the Landworkers’ Alliance, and Black Bark films. It has been made to bring people together to think about their food and to bust the myth of the industrial farming system. In Huntly, as a crossover between Think : Brexit and Town is the Garden projects, we screened this inspiring story behind the blood, sweat and tears of the British farmers seizing the Brexit moment to outgrow the industrial food system.
Farmer's Market - Seasonal Café - BrEGGsit 3 November 2018, 9am, Huntly Town Square
BrEGGsit - Do you like yours soft or hard? At the November edition of our local farmer's market we served up egg rolls and discussion in a tongue-in-cheek provocation towards facilitating debate at a local level.
November Brexfast 7 November 2018, 10am, 8 Castle Street, Huntly
The second in our series of Brexfast discussions questioned what impact or possibilities Brexit may have for local industry and tourism.
As well as individuals from the local community, we were joined by David McCubbin, Business Engagement Executive for the Tourism Development Team at Visit Aberdeenshire.
Farmer's Market - How Multinational is your Mincemeat? 1 December 2018, 9am, Huntly Town Square
At our Seasonal Cafe stall we served up 2 kinds of mince pies. The traditional ‘British’ mincemeat depends on a vast global trade network - much of which stretches back to the slave trade and other historic power constructs - for its intensely sweet cane sugar, rich spices, citrus and dried fruits. In a ‘pin the tail on the donkey’ style exercise, we provided a world map and moveable illustrations of ingredients which people had to guess where in the world they had travelled from. Many were shocked by the food miles incurred.
We also offered an alternative; a Local Mincemeat comprised of foraged hedgerow ingredients, spicy hogweed seeds, British beet sugar and local whisky. Could people guess what its ingredients were from tasting it? Would it be an acceptable alternative in festive pies?
At the same time, Claudia ran a Huntly Square Regeneration Christmas Tree activity in the former RBS building, alongside the Town Team's Room to Thrive strategy launch.
December Brexfast 5 December 2018, 10am, 8 Castle Street, Huntly
In our third Brexfast meeting, we discussed the environmental impact that Brexit might have, both locally and globally. What might our leaving the EU hold for our regulations, environmental organisations and studies, and aims for the future? Our Town is the Garden project staff were among the many professional and lay contributors.
January Brexfast 9 January 2019, 10am, 8 Castle Street, Huntly
The fourth in our series of Brexfast discussions questioned what impact or possibilities Brexit might have for our local health- and social care services, from the NHS to grass- roots community organisations. We were joined by former NHS workers, local GPs and many interested members of the public.
Think: Brexit Open Public Meeting 30 January 2019, 7pm, 8 Castle Street, Huntly
Following the publication in the press of an artist’s proposal, and the subsequent local explosion of interest, opinions and queries, Deveron Projects held an open public meeting in 8 Castle Street as part of our Think:Brexit programme of events and discussions.
Although many Brexit-related questions were posited, the main focus of the evening was discussing the proposed planting of a weeping willow tree by artist Clemens Wilhelm to mark the occasion of the UK leaving the EU. The proposal’s intention was to equally symbolise the sorrow and hope embodied within the Brexit debate, and to provide a place of shelter for Huntly folk to meet and to help heal the divide in opinion triggered by the Brexit referendum. Multiple location options were mooted, along with a discussion of the messages/meanings of the work, its form and title.
February Brexfast 6 February 2019, 10am, 8 Castle Street, Huntly
The fifth in our series of Brexfast discussions questioned how Brexit might affect our cultural exchange and Britain's participation in the international arts. Leaders from arts organisations such as Peacocks Printmakers and policy-makers in the British Council were present, along with local artists, composers and heads of arts academia at Aberdeen University and Robert Gordons University.
March Brexfast 6 March 2019, 10am, 8 Castle Street, Huntly
The sixth (and last) in our series of targeted Brexfast discussions questioned how Brexit might affect education and our linguistic links to the world. Modern language teachers and students from our local high school joined our public audience, which included many Huntly citizens with European connections.
29 March Day 29 March 2019, various Huntly venues, all day.
29 March 2019 was the date originally set for Britain to leave the European Union. Regardless of Brexit's many twists and turns, we invited the participants to join us in Huntly to reflect on the journey so far, and to think about how we can become friends again.
We aimed to make 29th March our day of returned harmony, bringing together people from all perspectives - Europhiles and Eurosceptics, old and young, people from here, there and everywhere. We had discussions, dancing and renewed friendship across all boundaries.
At 12pm Curator Alix Rothnie led a Town Collection European Artist Tour, featuring selected works by European artists from their time in residence working on past Deveron Arts projects in Huntly.
At 1pm we held the Room to React Exhibition Opening with Tapas Lunch, which was an exploration of democracy, politics and the media from young people's perspectives.
At 3pm there was the Eurovision Talk Fest, hosted by Sherry Wogan, AKA artist David Sherry. The event was made up of 'Huntly calling' Skype conversations with friends and colleagues across Europe, asking for their thoughts on Brexit, and a review of the headline of their local newspaper.
At 6pm, the UK Citizenship Pub Quiz began at Harry’s bar, with traditional British fish & chip supper. All questions for the quiz were drawn directly from the Life in the UK Citizenship Test.
At 8pm we moved to the Gordon Arms for a Historic Ceilidh with the Easdale Band, where we linked arms to dance the evening away. At 11pm - the moment that Brexit was due to take place (midnight European Parliament time) before being postponed earlier that week - we paused to toast the Weeping Willow tree, which was present as a guest of honour. A live link was established with Literaturhaus, Berlin, to coincide with their concurrent event. The ceilidh-goers in Huntly, and the writers in Literaturhaus simultaneously made the traditional circle to sing Auld Lang Syne as a gesture of reflection and of friendship for the future.
The evening ended at The Royal Oak in a karaoke session dubbed the Huntlyvision Song Contest.
The following morning we hosted a friendly brunch discussion about the future before departing on a Peace Walk to the White Wood.
Friday Lunch: Safe European Home 25 October 2019, 1pm, Brander Kitchen, Huntly
In the spring of 2019, with the very real prospect of the UK leaving the European Union looming, our colleague Joss Allen travelled to Helsinki by train for love. Along the way he wrote a series of letters to a weeping willow, which would be planted in Huntly to mark the day the UK left the EU. With a new Brexit date looming the following week, Joss reflected on his journey and thinking through the words he wrote in transit.
A Day in History 31 October 2019, 5pm, from Huntly Town Square
This was the 2nd incarnation of our programming preparing to mark the UK’s leaving of the European Union - following 29 March, the date for Brexit had been reset to 31 October. This date stood for some months, before again being postponed just days prior.
We had planned to mark this historic day by planting artist Clemens Wilhelm’s Weeping Willow tree to neutrally mark the date. The weeping willow is known to be a symbol of sorrow and loss for some, healing and rebirth for others.
As well as the date set for Brexit, 31 October was also Samhain, the ancient festival that marks the beginning of a new year in the traditional Celtic calendar. Having held lantern-making workshops prior to the event, a large crowd of Huntly folk including many young families came out for a lantern-lit procession from the Square down to the river Deveron.
In lieu of the actual tree planting, a blessing ceremony was held with 6 Tree Stewards each speaking for the different sections of Huntly society represented by them and within the elements and landscape of the tree’s planting site. Someone spoke for the earth and history of the town; another for the river and the force of social change; the youngest spoke for the sky and the future, and so on.
After the ceremony we gathered around a fire, toasting marshmallows, hearing songs, poems and readings over cups of hot foraged cordial.
The Last Brexfast: What is Democracy? 1 November, 10am, Square Deal, Huntly Following the non-planting ceremony the evening before, we hosted a large discussion event, playing on the Brexfast format we had explored before. A curated panel of speakers opened the discussion posing the question What is Democracy?
The panel was chaired by Prof Alison Phibbs, UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration, University of Glasgow. She was joined by artist Samson Kambalu, University of Oxford (Ruskin College); Francis McKee, CCA; and Manick Govinda, co-founder of Brexit Creatives.
Croissants and local butteries were served, with coffee and ‘strong and stable’ tea. The discussion was opened up to questions and contributions from the many audience members who filled the room-length table.
The Brexfast flowed into a Friday Lunch, where artist Clemens Wilhelm spoke about Learning from a tree.
Weeping Willow Day #3 31 January 2020, 4:30pm - 11pm, various Huntly venues
"Where were you when Brexit happened?" With a new date for Britain leaving the European Union set at the end of January 2020, we gathered to reflect on the friendships formed, as we prepared to move forward. Together with artist Clemens Wilhelm we planted a Weeping Willow Tree on the bank of the river Deveron to mark this significant day in history.
On Friday 31 January at 4:30pm we again gathered in Huntly Square to the sound of bagpipes, and ceremonially walked to the river Deveron for the sunset planting. The weeping willow was finally planted by the Tree Stewards inside its circular bench made by local craftsman Dave Whitehead. A stone of Aviemore schist with the historic date of 31012020 inscribed on it was unveiled by Prof. Richard Demarco, who gave a moving Address to the Future. The willow was toasted with whisky and mulled juice by the crowd as a bittersweet traditional air was played by a local fiddle player.
We made our way to 8 Castle Street for the 6pm Food Beyond Borders dinner, prepared by the Neep & Okra kitchen. The feast was a smorgasbord of different European flavours, and the project’s artist, Kawther Luay spoke of how plates have no borders; all are united through good food and company.
At 7pm we moved to Square Deal for the Understanding Brexit event: an audience with writer and comedian AL Kennedy in which she spoke of the importance of being kind to each other, and read excerpts from her writings published in the Sudeutsche Zweitung newspaper. The auditorium seating was cleared for a make-shift ceilidh with local musicians, which ended at 11pm with the ‘Brexit bells’ heralding the end of one ear and the beginning of the new as the moment at which the UK officially left the EU.
The following morning at the February Huntly Farmers Market, artist Clemens Wilhelm was present for the public to discuss the tree and to leave a wish for the tree’s future. A soup picnic at the willow site on the river Deveron was planned, along with a walk of the river- and road- boundaries of Huntly to discuss the impact of arbitrary borders with artist Iman Tajik.
4. Marketing
Because Think : Brexit encompassed many Brexit-related projects and events ranging from large-scale multiple day programming, to simple lunches and discussions, different approaches were necessary to reaching the relevant audiences.
Press/Print/Online/Offline ● Our initial 6-month series of Brexfasts were marketed to specific interest audiences in Huntly and farther aflied through direct emails, and targeted posters in key areas, for eg. a poster about the Health and Social Services Brexfast being put up in the waiting rooms of the local medical centre. ● The Peoples Vote March Huntly was publicised through a combination of local and national press, social media targeting grass-roots social activist groups across the north east of Scotland, and by word of mouth and low-fi flyers being distributed in many community sites and shop windows throughout Huntly. ● The Edinburgh Art Festival events were published as part of the festival’s brochures, online listings and included in their national press releases. At Deveron Projects we added to this with our own marketing on social media and twitter, linking with many other national and international arts organisations and civic bodies relating to migration and promotion of exchange in the arts. ● Clemens Wilhelm’s Weeping Willow proposal was taken up by the press widely during December 2018. With major press titles from the UK to Greece putting it in print, and some 90 online press articles in both large national and regional titles across Britain and beyond.
5. Education / Outreach Programme
Huntly Town Takeover by students of Gray’s School of Art
A cohort of Fine Art students with lecturer David Blyth took over the Bunkhouse of the Gordon Arms and inhabited the town at the end of January 2019. While there they engaged with Brexit themes and Clemens Wilhelm’s Weeping Willow tree, which had been the subject of local controversy. With the subject of the willow’s location being at the core of debate in the town, they investigated potential creative alternative locations, showing these at the Open Public Meeting as well as joining the discussion. Working in collaboration with Lauren Campbell in her Room to React project, they led a workshop in the art department of the local high school using drawing and printmaking techniques to created a series of beermats/coasters and posters exploring their and the pupils’ reimagined sound bites and graphics from a politics-driven media. They cooked and presented a Friday Lunch showing the work created in their micro-residency. At the end of their stay, the students ran an activity at the February Farmers Market asking local folk to use methods of willow rod divining to ‘find where the tree would want to go’.
Making Art in Troubled Times: Lecture at Gray’s School of Art
In December 2018 artist Clemens Wilhelm spoke to students at Gray’s School of Art about his practice. Clemens’ work explores socially painful political moments through stoic, poetic acts or quiet monuments - from Die Line, a walk of the former East-West German border, to the Monument to the Unknown Artist, to Huntly’s Weeping Willow tree to mark Brexit.
Willow Lantern Workshop
In the run-up to A Day in History in October 2019, local artist Norma D Hunter and intern Rhian Davies ran a lantern-making workshop for families. This drew a cross-generational audience of participants, and engaged them in the themes of the Think : Brexit and Weeping Willow projects. The lanterns were made of tissue paper and willow, echoing the Weeping Willow itself, along with former much-loved Halloween in Huntly festivals of the past, and bringing a message of hope and light into a potentially dark subject for those with Brexit fears.
Room to React workshops and sessions with Huntly Youth Platform
Room to React Youth Worker Lauren Campbell held many sessions with Huntly Youth Platform (AKA ‘Dave’) during the course of her project. Together they discussed Brexit, politics and the media, and explored this through the creation of their own political memes, badge- and zine- making. The workshops led to the Room to React exhibition of young people’s work, which included open submissions from the wider community, and was co-curated by local teenager Megan Anderson.
Discussion with LGBTQ+ club
Building on Art & Community Worker Petra Pennington’s long term working relationship with the The Gordon Schools LGBTQ+ & Allies Club, Petra and Lauren Campbell went along to one of the Club’s lunchtime sessions. They asked the Club about their impressions towards Brexit and the way it was presented in the media, and how they thought it might affect their lives.
Letters of Friendship Workshop
Petra and Lauren held a workshop in Gordon Primary School, working with a class to create their own Letters of Friendship postcards to a partner primary school in the Netherlands as a gesture of continuing friendship and connection in the face of Brexit. The individual postcards were posted by the pupils on a short class trip around Huntly, and one giant collaborative postcard was created featuring all of their signatures as a form of activist art.
Literaturhaus
As a cross-organisation collaboration for 29 March 2019, Deveron Projects sent poet and former Walking Institute artist Alec Findlay to Berlin. Alec was the Scottish delegate at the writer’s conference being held at Literaturhaus, Berlin, to coincide with the moment set for Brexit at that time.
6. Event Statistics
Event No. of events Date Participants New Participants
October Brexfast 1 3/10/2018 24 5
People's Vote March 1 20/10/2018 51 22 Huntly
DP @ People's Vote 1 20/10/2018 23 11 March London
MEP Lunch 1 31/10/2018 19 5
November Brexfast 1 7/11/2018 13 4
December Brexfast 1 5/12/2018 17 4
January Brexfast 1 9/1/2019 12 3
Discussion with 1 24/1/2019 15 0 LGBTQ+ club
Open Public Meeting 1 30/1/2019 25 22
February Brexfast 1 7/2/2019 17 3
October Farmers 1 6/10/2018 62 28 Market
Letters of Friendship 1 28/2/2019 31 Workshop
29 March Day 2 31/3/2019 140
Willow Lantern 1 16/10/2019 25 12 Workshop
Making Art in 1 30/10/2019 35 Troubled Times: Lecture at Grays School of Art
Last Brexfast: What Is 1 1/11/2019 61 5 Democracy?
A Day in History (31st 1 31/10/2019 88 20 Oct Brexit Event)
Weeping Willow Day 31/1/2020 41 15 #3 - Planting Ceremony
Food Beyond Borders 2 31/1/2020 65 15 / Understanding Brexit w. AL Kennedy
Total 19 --- 733 174
7. Media
Date Press Title
9/1/20 Huntly Express Lunch is just the business
16/1/20 Huntly Express Arts group's Brexit opera 16/1/20 Huntly Express Brexit tree event to take root
23/1/20 Huntly Express Willow Tree Finale
31/1/20 Herald Scotland Brexit: Scotland says goodbye amid candlelight
31/1/20 Clemens Wilhelm THE BREXIT TREE Website
1/2/20 BBC News Vigils and celebrations as Scots mark Brexit day
4/2/20 Suede Deutsche Für alle freunde, überall
6/2/20 Huntly Express Ceremony marks end of an era
6/2/20 Huntly Express Stone etched with historic date
9/2/20 The National Richard Demarco: Edinburgh Festivals must embrace Europe
12/2/20 Grampian Online Leading literary light marks Brexit in Huntly
19/2/20 Brinkwire Letters: SNP must have a debate on policy of EU membership
17/3/20 Frieze Perverse Situation': How the UK's new immigration rules will hit the art world
3/4/20 Map Magazine Text For a Willow
25/10/20 Huntly Express Locals to care for willow tree
25/10/20 Huntly Express Final Brexfast panel lined up
8. Evaluation
For a long time after the 2016 Brexit referendum Deveron Projects, like many creative producers, felt constipated and powerless to act productively while concerned about the future of their long-held connections with Europe and how their communities may be affected by the continuing division and impact of potential change to come.
Eventually at the start of summer 2018 we felt that we could no longer ignore Brexit as the ‘elephant in the room’, and as a socially engaged organisation, must tackle and explore the debate and its many limbs. As a team we agreed to start this as a project, acknowledging that in many ways it would be our least appreciated subject due to its inherent divisiveness and the toxic campaign rhetoric which accompanied the referendum and continued to divide people and opinion after. This could be a ‘thankless task’.
But how to begin? Which artist? Surprisingly few seemed to be willing to take on Brexit themes at that point. So without further options, we simply started as an organisation. Director Claudia Zeiske had been working on ideas of a Scottish Cultural Institute to maintain and strengthen collaboration between Scotland’s arts and cultural organisations and those in the EU. Following a Brexit-fuelled 90 day walk from her Home in Huntly to her childhood home in Munich (Home to Home), she expanded this collaborative framework into the discussion events Scotland + Europe and Migration + Borders at the Edinburgh Arts Festival. To complement this locally, a series of six monthly Brexfast discussions were curated, bringing people together to air concerns and discuss the potential impacts and benefits that Brexit may bring to areas of local and national life.
For any debate or discussion to flourish, an overall balance of opinions and perspectives must be heard. This was a challenge in much of what we set out to do; although many of the players involved felt personally aligned with Europe and therefore biased against Brexit, it was important to attempt to create a neutral platform for people to express themselves from both sides. And even when that was achieved, we found that the majority of our participants were consistently from the pro-EU camp, and it was incredibly difficult to engage those who had voted to leave. The ‘Remainers’ felt they had every reason to question and protest, just as much as the ‘Leavers’ were naturally sitting tight waiting to see if and how their majority-voted will would be delivered by the politicians.
Despite best intentions, this created a natural bias in our events and the voices at them. In this we also made mistakes organisationally. Having had the idea of twin events between London and Huntly to coincide with the national People’s Vote March, by calling the Huntly event by the same title we effectively eroded our own aim for it to be a ‘neutral’ platform for protest and counter-protest. It was a successful local protest march but was never realistically going to be shared by local Brexiteer perspectives.
Even the word ‘Brexit’ itself was contentious to many. Clemens Wilhelm’s original proposal called the artwork which would come to be known as 31012020: the Weeping Willow Tree the Brexit Tree. This was misinterpreted by some in the media and locally as a celebration of Brexit, ie being in favour of leaving the EU. Regardless of how clear it was made that the tree was to be a neutral symbol of both sorrow and hope/healing, the word ‘Brexit’ was considered ‘too political’ by our partners Aberdeenshire Council, on whose land we would plant the tree. So the Weeping Willow it became by name.
The question of ‘should art stay away from politics?’ was raised by some in the public. Clemens’ response was that ‘everything is political; art is a political act’, and as producers of art that interacts with society we certainly felt an organisational duty to respond to Brexit, in the way we do with many other social issues and subjects.
The layers of controversy and binary opinion surrounding all elements of Brexit were fascinating. Was it even possible to attempt to bring together both sides of the debate? As this report is being written, Brexit negotiations still rumble on through 2020. People aren’t so much less divided around Brexit, but more united in their other concerns surrounding the economy, climate and Coronavirus pandemic.
Think : Brexit was an ambitious umbrella project, taking in many facets of a fractured and diverse subject. It aimed to create a platform for discussion and creative action to remedy the overriding uncertainty and division following the 2016 Brexit referendum. Whether the project was effective in this is in the eye of the beholder. Just as the uncertain path of the Weeping Willow tree at times mirrored the complex political path towards Brexit and UK parliamentary confusion, so we were there to follow it as best we could. Think : Brexit did bring together many creative voices, and give time and space for questions to be asked on local and wider levels. In that sense, it did ‘exactly what it said on the tin’: we got people thinking about Brexit.
9. Legacy
For a mercurial project which took the majority of its engagement in discursive forms of talks, discussions and debates, the legacy of Think : Brexit can also be traced in more tangible outcomes.
Clemens Wilhelm’s Weeping Willow Tree was planted in Huntly. Its site and circular bench are a well used meeting place by the community, by many out for regular riverside walks and chats. It has been captured to stunning effect through the seasons by local photographer Derek Coull, whose poetic images have deepened the appreciation of the site on community social media forums. Despite the tree (along with many other community resources and landmarks) falling prey to vandalism in Spring 2020, the community once against the idea of the willow in its originally proposed location, rallied round to voice their support and shock that someone would try to ruin ‘their tree’.
The willow tree site is a searchable local landmark; we are hoping over time the Trip Advisor and Google Maps reviews reveal different ways in which locals and visitors alike relate to the artwork.
The cross-generational fellowship of Tree Stewards continues to meet, and as well as replanting the rescued and nurtured offcuts of the willow following the vandalism, have discussed the possibility of an annual proliferation of the tree’s offshoots to create a ‘Brexit tree forest’ spread throughout key symbolic community locations throughout Huntly, beyond and even abroad.
Although many of the young people who participated in Lauren Campbell’s Room to React project have since moved on to college and jobs out with Huntly, their voices were heard at a vital time when young people could have felt disenfranchised by political decisions and the media coverage of them. At least one of the young people whose work was shown at the Room to React exhibition has continued to make films and was invited to present them at his own Friday Lunch event.
Lauren’s Either Side of the Fence project – cycling home to England - saw the publication of a book and short film.
Although not spoken about much in this report, David Ward’s B means B chamber opera has been published and is in discussion towards eventual professional production with some of the opera houses of Europe.
10. Funding and Thanks
There were many people and organisations who collaborated with us, or supported this extensive project. In addition to those mentioned in the body of this report, we would like to thank: The British Council, Goethe Institute, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh Art Festival, Many Studios, Peckham Platform, Literaturhaus Berlin, and of course our core funders, Aberdeenshire Council and Creative Scotland.
11. Links to Deveron Projects website
Think : Brexit Claudia Zeiske: Home to Home Clemens Wilhelm: Weeping Willow Lauren Campbell: People’s Act David Ward: B means B Many Studios : Movement of Freedom
12. Appendices
Appendix A – Documentation: People's Vote March Huntly/London
Photo-documentation from the Peoples Vote March Huntly/London events can be found in our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=townisthevenue&set=a.2152642661413750
Appendix B – Documentation: 29 March Day
The photos from the full range of events which made up our programming for 29 March Day can be found in our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=townisthevenue&set=a.2393548693989811
Appendix C – Documentation: A Day in History & The Last Brexfast: What is Democracy?
The photos from A Day in History & The Last Brexfast event can be found in our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=townisthevenue&set=a.2829446587066684
Appendix D - Documentation: Weeping Willow Day #3
Iman Tajik’s photographs of Weeping Willow Day #3 event can be found in our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=townisthevenue&set=a.3011042598907081
Appendix E: Reply from Colin Clark, MP
Appendix F: Video from Eurovision Talk Fest
A film of the Eurovision Talk Fest event as part of 29 March Day, edited by Alix Rothnie, can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4NAGAGJC9W8
Appendix G: Video from Either Side of the Fence
Lauren Campbell’s work, Either Side of the Fence, explores the changing public opinion on Scottish Independence throughout her perfomative bike journey from Huntly to Bristol. The video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTTBmNdNvK0&feature=youtu.be
Appendix H: Think : Brexit resource list
As part of intern Laura Henry’s research during autumn 2018, an online resource list was put together on the project page. Like the Brexfast events, it covers many areas of public and daily life, exploring the potential impact Brexit could have on them. The list can be found at www.deveron-projects.com/think-brexit
Appendix I: Tree or No Tree diagrams
The journey of Clemens’ Wilhelm’s Weeping Willow tree, whether and when it would be planted and local public opinion on the details of the tree’s planting, mirrored the twists and turns and divisive nature of the UK’s national journey to Brexit. We found ourselves asking in the run-up to our large events, ‘Will it be a Tree or a No Tree outcome?’ in an echo of the public’s and media’s questioning of whether Brexit would be a ‘Deal or a No Deal outcome’.
Intern Natasha Natarajan created this firstTree or No Tree diagram as a snapshot of the situation in mid-March 2019.
In the immediate run-up to our planned planting date events of 29 March 2019, the Brexit date situation had developed/unravelled further. Intern Will Gore made this diagram that sums up the confusion.
Appendix J: Lyrics from Poison Apple
This song was specially commissioned by Deveron Projects and written and performed by artist and musician Rachel Bride Ashton at the People’s Vote March Huntly.
Enchanted Apple Rachel Ashton
Verse 1 There’s an enchanted apple, with a big bad spell on it It’s easy to say you wouldn’t bite the red side It’s dangerous But they did, and you did, and I did. Now we’re dead things on the road Entrails, skin and hair Flesh spreading everywhere As the tyres grind us down.
Chorus What kind of progress is this? To cut ourselves off from the world? Who draws the lines of the borders? Who gets left outside? The chain of blame is tangled pretty bad And now we don’t know what to do.
Verse 2 Now they’re at the door, hide your eyes and hide your mouth They’re in disguise of sorts Its wearing thin Get out the back door and run Where will we run to, when we’re chased by fear We can build those walls so high Never let them near But we will diminish and stagnate.
Chorus
Verse 3 So, we march here in the North, while we’re marching in the South Can we still freely move? Can we word our fears? And we will never be unanimous. Borders don’t define us, and look the sun is shining bright Its only when you open up You gain insight And why are these borders in our heads?
Chorus x 2
Appendix K: Brexit Anagrams
At Deveron Projects a very local part of our HOME programme exploring current issues from a local perspective takes place in the bathroom of the Deveron Projects offices in the Brander Building. In autumn 2018 this included some Brexit anagrams created by Art & Community Worker Petra Pennington from the many confusing and previously-unheard of terms which characterised Brexit coverage in the media - from ‘Canada Plus Plus’ to ‘Regularlity Alignment’ and ‘Brexodus’. These anagrams were later published in our winter 2019 Deveron Express newsletter.
Appendix L: Claudia Zeiske in conversation with Marsha Bradfield
This interview style discussion between Deveron Projects Director Claudia Zeiske and Marsha Bradfield, our Thinker in Residence for autumn 2018 appeared in our winter 2020 newsletter.
Skype Conversation Claudia Zeiske and Marsha Bradfield 3 December 2018
CZ: Good afternoon Marsha. This year we have been running our Thinker in Residence programme in a more structured way. We had the pleasure of hosting you this autumn. Tell us a bit about yourself and how you found your thinking time in Huntly.
MB: I often describe what I do in terms of ‘riding the hyphen’. So I'm an artist-curator-writer-researcher- educator-company director... and, and, and… And I'm just back from Deveron Projects where I was cogitating on two epic, urgent and interdependent themes: the mass migration and displacement of people. I should mention that going forward my own country of residence is uncertain. I was born in South Africa but am a Canadian citizen (Commonwealth twice over). After more than a decade in the UK it may be time to leave for reasons not of my choosing. Claudia, you’ve also been attending to your immigration status and this has also caused you angst.
CZ: Yes, ‘angst’ fits with being German. The decision to leave the EU has made me rather unsettled here, forcing me to ask myself, “Where is my home?” for the first time. I’ve always seen myself as a citizen of the world, or at least a citizen of Europe. But now I am a 'citizen of nowhere' as our PM poignantly said. This concern made me walk from Home to Home, from my home here in Huntly of 20+ years to my ancestral home near Munich, where my mother still lives.
MB: These references to identity and movement are clearly themes at the heart of your mobile enquiry into ‘home’.
CZ: Many people ask me whether I found my home, but the only answer I can give is, “it’s my rucksack”. They also ask me what I thought about. Were there any decisions or outcomes? The one thing I decided was to apply for UK citizenship. I didn’t really want to, but I did want to keep my options open. I am told by the powers to be, that as a European, it will be easy to gain settled status. But it’s unclear what happens if I go away for a while. Will I be allowed back in?
MB: I’m reassured by your sense of ‘rucksack as home’ as nomadism may be my practical reality in the near future. This is of course very different from someone displaced by climate change, war or persecution. Yet all these scenarios involve movement and existential crisis, which is I’d argue being ramped up by the general uncertainty laced with fear.
CZ: We have been thinking hard here in Huntly about how we can respond to the Brexit context, but this is difficult because so little is known about how it will work out in the end. We at Deveron Projects are very aware that we tend to talk to the like-minded – online, but sadly also here locally. We must talk to other perspectives.
MB: Yes. Creating community and working with it as a whole has long been your mantra. CZ: But Brexit has made working together much harder. We have tried to overcome this through dialogue on thematics that impact us all, such as the environment, tourism, health and economy.
MB: Earlier you used the word ‘unsettled’ to discuss the impact of Brexit on you personally. It’s a poignant way of putting it because it uses the language of migration metaphorically to broach its psychological consequences.
CZ: Feeling ‘unsettled’ is a bit like our town slogan Room to Roam – it refers to parallel states of being: both physical/geographical and mental. I always wondered how our world would be if we had no borders. The passport is a fairly new invention. At first they were identity documents to help people prove who they were in foreign lands. But now passports keep people out. If you don't have a passport, you are a nobody. If you don't have the right one, you might also be a nobody in another place. What would a world without them be like? Would people really move en masse? Maybe they would settle in less habitable places like the tundras of Russia or Canada. This might be difficult at first, but maybe we would move too. I like to play with this idea. But many people think I’m mad.
MB: This actually makes a lot of sense from an historical perspective. Before the Agricultural Revolution some 12,500 years ago, hunting and gathering was the norm. In his book Sapiens, the historian Yuval Harari argues that this way of life was happier and healthier. These humans were more ‘affluent’ because they worked less, had a strong sense of community and were deeply engaged with their environments. I don’t doubt the great benefit of a stateless society but I struggle to imagine how it might be organised, especially with global population growth.
CZ: I have not thought that far. Maybe it could be a mega-state with a people-centred government. The EU was a good attempt but it also needs reforming. If the EU was the State of Europe, then we would automatically take our less affluent neighbours under our wings. But then we would also further the Fortress of Europe.
MB: Desirable futures begin with past experience and knowing what we don’t want. I have this fantasy, this dream, also a bit mad. All of us – the people of Huntly, the leaders of the EU, everyone everywhere – together and simultaneously engage in the thought experiment by the philosopher John Rawls. The ‘veil of ignorance’ works like this: Imagine your identity is unknown to you. You don't know your age, gender, class, if you even have a passport, if you are able bodied and so on. Now imagine creating an ideal society. Remember, you don’t know your own needs. I sense that many would join me in hedging bets. We’d create a social order that meets as many needs as possible of all the members involved. It’s a powerful proposition because it uses self-interest and common sense to better grasp what is fair and just.
CZ: Amazing thoughts. Let’s hang onto them Marsha. Thank you for this conversation and for being our Thinker in Residence.
Marsha Bradfield is currently based in London, ‘riding the hyphen’ in her many roles in the arts and education. She is a member of the Precarious Workers Brigade, and founder of artfieldprojects.com.
Appendix M: Transcript from Part 1 of The Last Brexfast: What is Democracy?
Part one of this discussion event contains the panellists’ discussion, before it was opened up to Q&A and contributions from the audience in part two. The audio recording from the event was transcribed by intern Patrick Tumelty.
WHAT IS DEMOCRACY? BREXFAST 1.11.2019 – PART 1
[00:00 - 05:30] *Crowd noise*
[05:30 - 08:44] Claudia: [tapping glass] Order! Order! [laughter] So, anyway, welcome to our last Brexfast - I think it will not be the very last Brexfast, I get the feeling. You know what we did over the last year? We did every month a Brexfast, and the idea was we brought butteries and croissants together and talked about different topics: how would it affect us locally? So we had one about education - we brought people in from the school and from the university - one about art, one about health, and so on.
So, you may know we had hoped to plant a weeping willow with artist Clemens here, sitting next to us. We tried to do this already in March, and built a bench for it, to sit around in future. It hasn't happened, and now it hasn't happened yesterday night either, for those who managed to join us on this wonderful evening. But, our last Brexfast is probably the semi-last Brexfast. And so, welcome very much!
Quickly, the thankful task of telling you the exits are here, and are here [laughter] This is the very first event in - we also haven't got toilets, so you have to use the public toilets which are just to the left, less than half a minute to walk, you'll see it on the left and they're quite clean - but we will have lovely toilets here, one day. This is the house we are about to buy - if everything goes well, next Friday we own it and get the key. We would have loved to give you a tour but the current owner is still living here and it would be a bit unfair on him, but we will show later on at least the garden. And so, it's a much bigger house than you actually anticipate; eventually we will have very beautiful, accessible toilets here [laughter].
So, this is sort of the housekeeping where I now keep quiet, I'm the speaker here today and I leave it to the other speakers here today; I'm introducing Alison. She has the UNESCO chair for refugee integration that is working very much with artists all over the world and she is chairing our event today, and also speaking herself and I'm passing this on now - I just wanted to say I hope you have a great day; the talks will be about an hour and then another hour to talk. Then we will - then my lovely, lovely team - who I will introduce later - have some lunch and Clemens can also tell a little about the tree later on. So I hope you enjoy yourself with the beautiful, Huntly-made crossaints - next time you might not get them! We had actually thought to not get them, but you make your own mind up about then. Okay, I'm passing on to Alison!
[08:44 -32:18] Alison Phipps:
PREAMBLE [08:44-14:42] Thank you very much indeed and welcome everyone to this lovely space, that is almost your space, but isn't quite your space, which feels like a lovely way of thinking a little about this question What Is Democracy? because it also a question of what is ownership, or what is ownership not.
This is my first time in Huntly and I'm just loving being here, I'm loving going down to the river and getting very cold feet! And thank you to everyone who put on that event last night and brought light into darkness, but also marshmallows to play with and kids with fun stories, just all the things that are the glue of community - in very real ways with sticky marshmallows! [laughter] in all those very real ways which are actually about the rituals, the deep rituals, layers of rituals, which are Halloween, which are Brexit or not, which are Samhain or not, which are all the ways we layer and mark our seasons in different ways, and this is just one of the ways which we mark a season, that is not a season but is a season, the season of Brexit or Not-Brexit with a "Brek" "Fast" which has stuck fast that's kinda like my coat this morning, and I was kinda pulling it up and thinking "Oh, this is a "Brek", cause my zip was stuck, the "fast"ener was stuck and it didn't actually do up. [some laughter]
So lots of things where we're not quite sure where we are. This is, as the academics would tell us, a "liminal phase", and that word liminality gets used all the time, a threshold time, a time associated with phases of the moon, dragons, snakes, and women...and so beware. [laughter]
And so, just a couple of things just to say about how I would like us to chair this. Already, you've all been part of a democratic process of holding a calabash, touching a calabash, an object that is sitting here on the table. This will be used should our speakers, myself included, go over fifteen minutes...[some laughter]...and there are many things you can use a calabash for, but you can understand from the word cala..."bash" [laughter] that it might have a useful function in timekeeping. So we'll just use this and wave it in front of our speakers when time is coming to be. European- accuracy style fifteen minutes according to my phone. Some of my friends and colleagues here including myself might not wish to respect it in quite that form; they have other understandings of "chronos-time" as actually "kairos-time", as entering other dimensions...
But all that said, we're hoping to be through with our talks by about quarter to twelve. Each of the four speakers, including myself, will have about fifteen minutes - and then we're hoping to let you have some time to deliberate and think, and what we want, what Claudia and the team here want, is some good discussion and maybe just to say a few things about that. In liminal phases, we often say things...we later regret. In liminal phases, we often say we know things...when we don't. In liminal phases, we pretend to a power when what we need is humility, because all that is solid has melted into air, and we don't know who we are any longer, we don't know where we are, and we don't know what our questions are for.
So, my plea to you and my spirit of chairing will be that we are gentle to one another in our debates and our conversations; that we remember that the words we have are just approximations - they are symbols that stand in for stuff that often can't yet be articulated, and for which we don't yet in ordinary conversation have language, which, with the help of the poets and the artists, will start to solidify maybe out of the conversations that we're having here, and that the work that the artists and the projects are doing here, this work of ambivalence, this work of testing and making space within the liminal space here in Huntly is trying to do that very work of moving us from where we were, to where we might be. And on the way, we're going to need a few lanterns in jam-jars, cause if we walk down to the river, there might be dragons, and maybe phases of the moon, and we might trip over, and we're going to need to watch our steps, because it's not easy work.
So before I speak myself - I love the way, before you introduce anything in a UK context, the first thing you do is say "these are the exits and this is the WiFi code" [laughter] which is all about letting people know how they can get out as fast as possible [more laughter] but again, to ask you to just be present to one another in the space, or like let your thoughts wander out and back but to keep yourselves comfortable and to monitor the airspace around you, and there are "croitteries" and "bussaints" and tea and coffee and water - so space to make yourselves feel at home. And I love the way that today I'm your host and yesterday I was a guest in this town and that we're messing with the old idea in the Greek, the word "xenia" meaning host also means guest where there is no difference; so we're all hosting one another and also guesting one another that just, yeah, look another each other as we think and talk about difficult things, and as we try and do both with sorrow and with lightness, with tragedy and with comedy, those two sides of the Janus face of the mask.
INTRODUCTIONS [14:43-16:22] Allow me to quickly introduce our speakers and then I'm going to be handing over to them at various points, so here we have Samson Kambalu, an artist who is full of mischief [laughter], who is full of stories from Malawi, stories from Yale, stories from Oxford, stories of, ahem, his dubious legal activities [more laughter] and I think you're really gonna enjoy some of his provocations.
Manick Govinda who has founded a collective of Artists for Brexit and who is, I think, going to be doing a lot of in the Barbican and on the South Bank over the weekend, just debating Brexit and debating art and making lots of interventions and decisions. He has done a lot just to enable arts to have a space, particularly in the London area for thinking about the intersections with political debate. So, I think we're going to get lots of lovely stories about artistic interventions he's been part of.
And then Francis, who I feel I've known all my life, but actually bumped into and who was making sure I didn't accidentally poke his eye out with a willow branch last night. And even though we have a whole family in common, he has come up as a real friend, I know, to the projects up here and is director of the CCA and is going to be bringing a little Irish humor too, he tells me. But also, thinking a lot about "What does openness mean?", "What is open art?" and "open access?" and those philosophical questions that have come from projects like the Open Democracy Project over the years.
SPEECH [16:23 - 32:18] So these are the speakers, along with myself. I'll be opening up just now with a few poetic thoughts and maybe some questions and provocations, as asked, about this question "What is Democracy?" I'm going to start with this, the apple that, last night, I plucked from the tree we didn't plant. You didn't know that apples could come from weeping willows, did you?
[laughter, followed by small interruption]
Okay, so, the apple. It's a war story. A woman takes an apple from a tree, tastes and shares. It's what women always do. It's how the children are fed. But sharing destroys greed, destroys the myth of scarcity. So the story became the war, and shame was hers, and pain was hers, and for centuries knowledge could not be hers, and snakes were to feed unbidden on her body. And she would always be to blame. Apples, the root and branch of peace; a weapon in an unjust war. Come, taste, share, see. The apple, her sharing, her tender knowing gesture...it starts his war.
Today is the first of November. In some calendars, it's All Saints Day. The Day of the Dead is the day where we tend the graves, where we remember those who have passed; the great ones who have gone before us, the ones in our families, and the ones who might have chartered a course for us to follow. Today is the day where we remember the ancestors, the ones whose names we wish to hallow and hold up; the ones who we feel are the ones we want to remember.
When I've asked "What is Democracy?" and I've read the brief for the Last Brexfast, it's nicely laid out; our ancestors are the Greeks, with the words "demos" - the people - and "kratos" - the strength - and those old ideas that fermented in the Athenian city states which were about how free men might determine the fate of people...democracy. So let's tell the story that has been passed down to us by our ancestors who are the free, white, European men. Because that's the story of democracy that we've inherited within the context of this country. That's where we have gone, that's what we hallow, that's what those arcane rituals in the Houses of Parliament are still all harkening back to; those are the models. Our parliamentary democracy in the UK comes from there - but many of the other ways which inthe chambers of Europe are formed, their shapes, have all got an echo back to times when we had to think the question of how we might govern ourselves, and we kept going back, we kept going back, to the Greeks.
And the 18th Century, the artists in Germany, the thinkers - Goethe in particular - went back to the Greeks. The great thinkers of our times have always thought that that is where we might find some answers. From the city states, from free men, from men. Scholars will tell us - scholars of democracy, scholars hallowing this particular tradition - will tell us the concept arose around about the 5th century, before the start of the Common Era. It came into the English language in regular use in the 16th century, at a time where the country was fermenting, where documents were being tested, where questions were being asked, but there are other places and charters we can go to; The Declaration of Arbroath, the Magna Carta, just being two that we might want to put on the table and struggle with and think about under the lens of democracy.
Scholars tend to agree that there are four elements to democracy as received in this tradition: that it is a political system about how we change and replace those in power, that idea of the sovereignty of the people replacing the sovereignty of the monarch, and that even with the sovereignty of Parliament it is the people who are electing the representatives, and that those representatives only govern according to the will of the people, and how we decide that then becomes a really interesting, technical, nerdy subject of who counts to vote, who gets a vote, how we vote, what the vote looks like, whether you put a cross or an arrow or a number, what you do with enfranchisement, all those questions come underneath that.
Democracy has a second element which is about the active participation of citizens, which of course raises the question: who is a citizen? And for me, that's where, in my own work, the figure of the refugee is the trickster par excellence; the figure that is stateless, the figure that has no citizenship, in a country where they can be enfranchised. The figure around whom we've danced with our lovely Greek-related questions of democracy, and have left them out, the figure who is part of what Agamben has called the "state of exception".
Democracy, we believe, is held in place by the rule of law; it needs a strong judiciary. All eleven of the Law Lords were unanimous in their determinations recently about the health and state of our democracy, and their role in ensuring that the rule of law remained in place. And many will say that that also intersects with questions of human rights and the way in which again when we ask questions about we might govern with the will of the people after the last particularly vicious and virulent form of fascism within the European project - that we needed to enshrine within the Geneva Convention many questions of human rights. And many would not agree, many would see the human rights universalist project as actually being exclusionary, being a European project and being formed around particular forms of rationality and logic and thought, which we inherited all that time ago, from five centuries before the start of the Common Era.
And finally, the fourth element: free and fair elections. And then, obviously, the question is: for whom is this free? On the day of the Scottish Independence Referendum, a young, enfranchised, Commonwealth refugee subject was living with me at my home in Glasgow. He'd recently been made destitute, which was why he was living with me in my home in Glasgow, but he was registered to vote. An hour's walk across the city; he got up at six and he was the first to vote in that polling booth - because for the first time in his life, he was going to be able to vote in an election that was free and fair according to him, and there wouldn't be so much blood - in the present - around his right to make a cross. And as Deborah Kiyombi [transcribers note: name spelling uncertain], the human rights lawyer from DR Congo who lives and works in Edinburgh said recently "So much lies underneath the right to make a cross".
That's just one story, but there are many others. You can follow and trace the story to the founding of Glasgow around the site in Govan which was a thing site, the site of an ancient Scandinavian Viking-style parliament where elders would come together - usually the white men, the free ones, the ones with the power - to deliberate, to decide, to divide up land and settle disputes. And that's still the way of the world in many parts of the world; that the men will sit round the baobab tree drinking wine from a calabash and deciding who can and cannot marry who, and whether a marriage is or is not annulled, and whether the land does or does not belong, and whose cattle they are that just wandered over that particular piece of land that isn't a boundary but might be a boundary and becomes a boundary through a speech act.
Within the Church, the practice of papal elections also points to questions and ways in which religious institutions have worked with ideas of democracy. In Germany, the friarsreich statter [transcriber's note: spelling uncertain] were very like the Athenian project of democracy; free towns run for free people, largely also for free trade. And also there are many areas, particularly in West Africa, where you can trace democratic systems and participation.
In the German constitution, the words of that constitution - written out of our last huge testing - are "Die würde des menschen ist unantastbar" - the dignity of the person is untouchable. In the draft interim constitution for the Scottish Parliament, it says "In Scotland, the people are sovereign". Those questions of sovereignty and dignity are really interesting. With my students, when I teach, and particularly questions of forms of liberal democracy, what I ask them to do is say "What would you write? What would be your first line? And which language would you write it in?" Because writing it in English in the UK, a country which is multilingual, is already a question; Welsh, sign language, Gaelic, and Scots are all also official languages within these isles, along with Ulster Scots. There are lots of questions which lie underneath the ways in which we express ourselves and express democracy.
I love a quotation from John Dewey, even though he is one of the white men I should be knocking down, because that is kind of my job [some laughter]. Recently somebody tweeted about my latest book, from France, where they said "Look what's happened! I've got this from inter-library loans and this is the Dewey Decimal System number from the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris!" and I got very excited. Ahem. But John Dewey, he talks about "creative democracy" and I love this idea, and it might be one for us to play with. He says "Creative democracy is forever that of the creation of a freer and more humane experience, in which all share and contribute". In which all share and contribute.
So to wrap this up, a couple of questions to think about. The question we've got is "What is Democracy?". But my question, underneath that, is why do we need this question today? Who is the question "What is Democracy?" serving? What work is this question doing for us? In Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, of which my friend and colleague Podrick Otombo [transcriber's note: spelling uncertain] pointed out, there is a lovely idea which is the idea of "mu", and mu is a word coming from Zen Buddhism; if you say mu, what you're actually saying is "Tsk, it's not a good question. Ask a better question". Work to ask better questions. The question we asked in the Brexit referendum was not a good question, because it got us here, to a place of strife. What are better questions? And how do we work out what better questions are? And how do we work out what the ways are that we might answer those questions? Are they about everyone's voice being equal as they are when you vote on a page? Or are they actually about saying, maybe we need to change the line of ancestry?
Maybe always going back to free, white men is not the answer. Maybe we're right at this time to be debating in the Scottish Parliament questions of enfranchisement of prisoners, questions of enfranchisement of refugees, questions of lowering the [age of] voting right. Because we need those questions too, not instead of but too, to help us deepen and expand our thinking about what democracy is and is for. Who is served at the moment by our forms of democracy? And where might we go instead, to look at ways in which democracy has been held? Much of my work, as you'll obviously understand, is sitting down round tables much like this, with people who are not enfranchised. And all people who are indigenous peoples, whose land has been taken from them, who have had to fight to get their rights and lands back, for whom questions of democracy are deep and ancient, who have ancestors that they honour, where those questions have been raised and struggled over, questions of ancestry that are also about the role that women will play in asking the question of how we share our bread. Because that is still profoundly the question of democracy.
What is democracy? What is democracy for? Who might be served by democracy? For me? Democracy is a calabash. It's a vessel. Something we can all touch, something we can pass around, something when you're holding it, you can speak from. Something, when it's raised, means your time is up [laughter] and it's time for others to speak. Thank you.
[applause]
And in the spirit of the gift, I'm going to hand over the microphone, for about fifteen minutes, to Samson.
Samson Kambalu [32:19 - 48:20]: Okay, see if I can do this in fifteen minutes. Democracy...okay, I will speak about Chewa democracy, which is my...Chewa is not actually a tribe in southern Africa, it's like a mother tribe, you know? A lot of tribes from where I'm coming from, come from the Chewa and I wanted to speak a bit about the Chewa democracy, the history of Chewa democracy.
It's known that, I think it's agreed that various people in southern Africa are called the Twa, and these are said to be small people. Around Malawi, they were called Batwa; my father's tribe, the Chewa, would have come from the Congo, west Africa, went down southern Africa and encountered this people, the Batwa, and they were small, small. Trust me, they are small. [laughter]. And so, if you encounter a Batwa man, or person, they will ask you: "Where did you see me?" So the Chewa, they would say "Uh, I saw you just now"...and it's said these people were nasty, they would attack you, and kill you if you said "Uh, I just saw you just now". And they kept doing this to the Chewa for a long time. Until one Chewa man, person, figured it out..."So, okay...I know what to say next time" "So where did you see me?" "Oh, I saw you from over there!" And this small man said "That's a great answer". [laughter] I saw you on the horizon, you know?
And from that moment, the Chewa and the Batwa lived in peace and harmony. They intermarried, and the wandering Chewa learnt the ways of the Batwa, which is about being in harmony with nature. You know, they lived in clusters, not even villages, I think that these people were scattered over southern African plains, until one day the Chewa stood up to these Batwa men, people, peasants - I don't know why I keep saying men, men and women [laughs], don't analyse me on that!
[brief interruption]
So the Chewa stood up to these guys, the Batwa, and said "Where did you see me?" And the Batwa person looked at these Chewa people and said "Hmm...I saw you from over there", he pointed at the sky, you know, the stars. So the Chewa said "That's correct" so there was no killing - the Batwa got the right answer right away, he figured it out, I'm going to say "I saw you from over there, the stars". From that moment, the Chewa said "Oh yeah, that's right, I think I'm more than just the horizon, I actually extend into the stars". And they devised this dance, the Nyau dance with the mask every now and then, to affirm their place as coming from the stars, you know? So there was no - just this everyday life of living in harmony with nature, but there was also a time to connect to the stars. So this is where the mask tradition is coming in.
And when that happened, it was so addictive that everybody was wearing a mask all the time. [laughter] Dancing, connecting with the stars. And while they were at it, another wave of Chewa came from, again west Africa, the Congo. The first ones, that lot were called the Banda, the next lot were called the Phiris, and they took over! Because these people were busy dancing! [laughter] Raving all the time! And another wave came in and said "Oh God, it's so easy to...wow, everyone's all..." and so they took over and started governance. But eventually, they had to then reach a compromise, which was to say that for six months, I think, in southern Africa, people tend to work in their nature, they're gathering and they're planting. And the other six, that's when the masks come out. So, six months of work, six months of raving. [laughter]. You know, so that's the compromise the Banda made with the Phiri. And so that's the definition of the Chewa democracy. Okay, what is it? Six months of work, six months of raving. [laughter]
And this is what the colonials found. When the British came to Malawi, the thing that they couldn't unpack was the tradition of wearing masks, you know? Because if people are wearing masks, there is no way of getting them to work, you know? So they knew... so one of the biggest efforts the British did to pacify Malawi was to try to get rid of the Nyau masks. Of course, it didn't work. And, actually, if somebody can undo the marriage to the Nyau masks in southern Africa, proper development will come to the region. Because at the moment, it is undeveloped. Malawi, we are proudly the poorest nation on earth [laughs] So, I am wondering, maybe because the mask hasn't been undone yet - yes, the British came but the masking traditions are still thriving - I was there, a year ago, filming there the film you can see on Netflix, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, and democracy has allowed these old traditions to come to the fore again. Of course, seen from outside, it's undevelopment, but I think southern Africa is a place of resistance.
I think southern Africa didn't develop aqueducts, or pyramids, or skyscrapers, but I'm telling you; in social technology, you can't beat southern Africa. Try anything in southern Africa, it will fail. [laughter] And you're gonna call it undevelopment! It's extreme resistance. I spent five years studying for my Ph.D on Nyau traditions and I threw my hands up in the air and said "this is so complex!" I believe that when continental philosophy, that's being developed in Europe, when it's done, they'll see this Nyau guy...waiting there. When I'm reading the Derridas, the Agambens, the Sartres, the Hegels, Zizek, I was like "God! We are a long way! [laughter] But you're getting there!" Because all these things were mastered in southern Africa, this is for hundreds of years and have been fine-tuned. So much so, that I think the Nyau tradition in some ways, it's like a computer. Really! Take anything in southern Africa, it'll go Nyau, it's gonna go this direction.
And this is what happens, for instance, in democracy. When Europeans came to Malawi, they elected chiefs. [unclear] turned into dictators. So that's how the British pacified southern Africa, they just simply took the chiefs, and corrupted them, and made them enslave their own people, if you like. And this also happened when democracy came. Panafricanism, they tried to adopt all the old ways of doing things to the modern ways, but these new chiefs, if you like, quickly turned into dictators. You had Banda in Malawi, Mobutu Sese Seko, Idi Amin and so on. This is a failed attempt to recapture the old way of doing politics.
But why did it fail? I think this is because of different values. When you have an African chief, he's different from a modern president, if you like. I can give you an example; for instance, if a Chewa chief dies, everyone runs out of the village, you know? Nobody wants power in Africa. Nobody. It's crazy that in the West people are always working for power, you're crazy! [laughter] And it's actually a kind of crazy because it's true; you can't use power. Try it! You can ask Claudia! [laughs] Suppose you're Barack Obama, what are you going to do with power? You're sitting in this Oval Office with all your bodyguards, what are you going to do with power? Not much.
Think about me, the artist, the poor artist in London. Nobody cares, nobody's gonna...[snorts dismissively]. I'm in my local club in Kensal Green, paradise! God, I can do what I like! You know? Because there's nothing to my name, I can be whatever I want. I'm a sovereign. I can get drunk the way I like, whatever, do whatever, this is what happens, and this is the thing, the main thing in Chewa democracy that people are chasing, sovereignty, the ability to be, to just "be". They know that, for instance traditionally the chief would be responsible for utility, you know? And if you really want real freedom, what you chase is the mask, the sovereign. It's the state; the liminal state of things, perhaps the way you used...and I think this is still our value in southern Africa. Chasing sovereignty to love of power [transcriber's note; "to" in the sense of "rather than", I think].
Those people who chase sovereignty, who chase the mask, chase a different economy. Power, I think, is economy of utility; capital, yeah? Gift economy is sovereignty; the gift economy is an economy of generosity; the African tries to get to a place of generosity. He works just for necessity. The people came and instituted government, but that's just for necessity - what he is really looking for is to get back to the mask, the place of sovereignty. While in the West, people can't wait to get back to work! You know? Why are you working? It's all done! Why!? I mean, all the work is done and everybody still wants a job. What you need a job for? You know?
And even when they get power, they can't use it too. Everybody's just at home, getting depressed. It's different values, this is what I'm trying to say is that I think, for me, in conclusion, I can say it's not enough to be democratic - democracy for what? At the moment, democracy here in the West is for capital to do business, you know? And some people, like Badiou, claimed that there is no democracy, because, really, it's all for - Parliament, MPs are working for business. All this idea that "oh, we'll give you jobs" - I don't want a job! It's like, are we talking about the right thing when I hear all this "jobs and jobs are going".
Anyway, it just shows that the thing I've noticed a lot in the West is the lack of creativity. I think governments, Western governments, don't know what to do with people if they are not working. There's hardly - what are you going to do if you don't have a job? You know, is a job really what people are looking for? You know, maybe they miss their mask, back to Africa to- [laughs]. Maybe that's not what you're looking for, maybe you're looking for something else. Not quite a job. You're sure it's a job you're looking for? Democracy is a product of the Enlightenment. Western governments should rather give you a job because it makes sense, doesn't it? Because if I get me a mask, they be like "It doesn't make sense" Certainly, we are men of reason in the West, so the thing is, is a job. But is it really a job? I don't know. It is difficult to see what else we would do if we were not working. But part of that is, I think, after Enlightenment, the West has phased out all its creativity.
Everything creative is seen either as effeminate - it's something that women should do, or children. And so, what do men do?
Claudia: They work.
Samson: They work, for no reason. You know, why are you working? Because they don't want to be seen as effeminate, or creative. They don't want to get back to beating drums, or doing a little dance. I mean, the competition that's on the stock market on would be , I'm sure, solved if men just competed "Who's going to get the feather on their head?", you know, people don't have to [unclear] but just simply fight for a little...or do a little dance, you know, the women will see it "Oh, he dance good", it doesn't have to be about millions.
It's the same, I'm sure the distraction of the libido, the libidinisality [???] of the stock market will be solved in a simple creative context. But we won't, because we are proud men of Enlightenment, we don't want to be seen as savages, so we stick to the stock market and destruct the earth, destroy it all, for the sake of being seen as being reasonable.
Anyway, for me, there is a big difference...
[calabash is held up, prompting laughter]
In conclusion, I can say...[more laughter] I want democracy, but a democracy that will lead to a more creative life, to sovereignty rather than this continued chase for utility. It's a very pessimistic view of the world, this idea that we always worry about necessity; that we built a civilisation based on necessity. I want to see more civilisation built on something more optimistic; on the gift, on generosity, on creativity - in the belief that once we give something...
[calabash is held up again, prompting laughter]
Okay, I'll stop there.
[applause]
Alison Phipps [48:21-48:55]: Thank you, thank you. I'm now going to render you unemployed, [laughter] as we are on a strict schedule here, and we all have trains to catch and flights to catch and places to be and jobs to do and things to go to, so in that spirit...thank you, thank you very much for those provocations, for that gift that you've shared so generously with us. And I'm going to hand over to Manick, to take us further into this debate.
Manick Govinda [48:56-01:05:40]: Thanks. Thank you Claudia for inviting me - I was in two minds about coming, you know, am I going to be walking into the lions' den? [laughter] The sacrificial sacrifice - all my friends in London were joking about The Wicker Man [more laughter]. But, you know, what I found yesterday was an incredibly moving, really powerful, really connected, and grounding. So, thank you to Claudia and everyone else at Deveron Projects for making me feel so welcomed and I really appreciate that and it will stay with me for a very long time.
So thanks for inviting me. I am glad to be here, actually - the most important thing about when things seem very divisive is coming together. There's more in common than what divides us. And although the referendum kinda felt like it was this seismic earthquake that fractured communities and people and friendships and relationships - you know, I think we can find a way forward. So, I'm going to try and be positive. Claudia asked me to talk more about art, and art, as she said, in her kinda blurb, that I'm going to be talking about a positive future in art and culture outside of the EU. Which is a good proposition to question me on.
So I think, from the point of view of the arts, you know, there's one compelling ideal that the EU seem to have enshrined in, you know, taken pride in, and that's in the Freedom of Movement. But it's freedom of movement across Europe, and the EU Foreign Policy chief Federica Mogherini, forgive my pronunciation, he [sic] tweeted on the thirtieth of January twenty-seventeen that "We celebrate when walls are brought down and bridges are built". Yet, at the same time, five thousand people died trying to reach the European continent in twenty-sixteen. So I think this ideal of freedom of movement, is almost like the days of Ancient Greek democracy; freedom for some, unfreedom for others.
So while we have freedom of movement across the twenty-eight member states, well, still the twenty-eight member states, of the EU and the European Economic Area, we have to remember that it is, freedom of movement is, a privilege for some but for the rest of the world, it's not. So, wanted to bring that into context. But, so, let's think positively about things and I want to go back into a bit of history, I suppose, because if we do think that the privileging of EU citizens against the unfairness of non-EU citizens who don't have that freedom of movement, but artistic freedom - and I'm a firm believer in artistic freedom - must also mean freedom of movement for artists, and that's not simply along the EU states.
So the spirit of creative freedom across nation states - and in my opinion, it did exist well before the nineteen-ninety-two Maastricht Treaty, which kickstarts the gradual erosion of internal EU borders - and artists have always found paths to freedom, whether they're fleeing the fascist Axis powers of World War II, Franco's Spain, Communist USSR, to nations that, for those artists, sort of symbolise that sense of personal freedom, individual freedom. And many artists emigrated, as immigrants, to the USA and Great Britain.
Many examples: the German Dadaist John Heartfield, whose ground-breaking montage, photomontages, became overly political attacks against Hitler and Nazism, fled from Germany in nineteen-thirty-eight, as did the German Expressionist painter and writer Oscar Kokoschka. Now, things were never ideal, and it was a disgraceful blight in British history that both these artists were temporarily interned as foreign aliens on the Isle of Man. However, John Heartfield did stay in England for quite a number of years, and there was an influx of German immigrant artists and writers, theorists, musicians, dancers, intellectuals, architects and entrepreneurs in the nineteen-thirties, and that ignited a new Enlightenment, and brought a sense of Modernism to the UK. Artists like Lucien Freud, Frank Auerbach, Kurt Schwitters, Rudolf Laban, [unclear], and many others came to the UK to make it either temporarily or permanently their home. And the influence of these individuals and many more transformed British culture.
We had the Commonwealth nations, through the, ahem, trophies of Empire I suppose. I come from a former Commonwealth country, sorry, a former British Empire country, Mauritius, and we claimed our independance in sixty-eight, and we became a republic in the eighties. But many amazing writers, that I admire, who I love and read many of their books, came from the Caribbean. Writers like VS Naipaul, CLR James - the great Marxist historian - Sam Selvon, who wrote the fantastic book The Lonely Londoners. These are people who came to the UK in the late fifties and the sixties, and, you know, we must remember that continental Europe also welcomed incredible individuals, writers, jazz musicians, particularly black jazz musicians - the scene really thrived in countries like France - and felt welcomed in those countries. The list goes on, you know, poets: Langston Hughes, Gertrude Stein, Edith Wharton. We have had this free exchange of culture and intellectual exchange and art.
Now, you know, what I think of that, these profound movements across the globe to Europe and the UK, you know, and what influences what might be seen as indigenous culture, let's say. These cultural absorptions and transformations happened well before the creation of the European Union, and Britain and many other European countries benefitted heavily from that, you know, cultures come to countries. It may not have been entirely harmonious; human relationships are rarely harmonious - just look at families, husbands and wives, neighbours, and so forth - but the sense of openness has changed the cultural landscape.
So where are we now? That was obviously talking about pre-Second World War, nineteen-thirties Europe and also post-War with the Commonwealth immigrants coming to the UK and enriching British life. I kind of want to defend democracy and argue that, actually, we need more democracy. I don't think we have enough democracy. And I'm going to refer to three artists; two living - both I know and have had great conversations with and have invited for talks and debates; and one who's dead. [laughs] But who I think is profoundly influential on projects like Deveron Projects - Joseph Beuys.
So Joseph Beuys works a lot around social relationships and art as a vehicle for these kind of gatherings, actually, and in nineteen-seventy-two - actually, this has been a curious little fantasy of mine, but I think I might ditch it after Clemens' wonderful commission and tree project - but it has been a curious little fantasy of mine to organise a re-staging of a boxing match that took place in nineteen-seventy-two between the German artist Joseph Beuys, who we know is regarded as a giant of socially-engaged, socially-relational art...so he did this performance in the boxing ring with a local art student of his. And the performance was entitled "Boxing for Direct Democracy". And Joseph Beuys represented exactly that, direct democracy, and his opponent was boxing for representative democracy.
After three rounds, Joseph Beuys won.
Was the match rigged? Did he pay to have his younger student fall after three rounds? [laughter] Interesting metaphor, when we think about the referendum and democratic voting. Who knows? It's performance history. But, I was thinking of restaging it in a manner of convivial camaraderie; not exactly punching each other's lights out but something much more playful and bringing to light the context of the EU referendum vote. But I think I prefer Clemens way of planting a tree, having music, having songs, having food, having libations, as a better way of bringing us closer together. Yeah, having a Leaver slog it out with a Remainer is probably not a good idea. [laughter]
But Joseph Beuys is a really important figure, because he was founder of the German Green Party, or co-founder. He set up these wonderful, sort of propositions and one he proposed in nineteen-seventy-two was called "The Bureau for the Organisation of Direct Democracy". And he wrote pretty much almost like a manifesto of what the establishments of direct democracy would be. And he firmly believed in referenda - that public citizens should be the people that determine decisions.
[calabash is held up]
Am I gone already?
Alison Phipps: About three minutes.
Manick Govinda: Three minutes? Time flies. And so, his organisation for direct democracy in nineteen- seventy-two, he talked, he conceived of this idea that the formation of individual will is from the bottom, not the top. So our politicians should be accountable to the people, to the demos. It's not about power; we give them power, and if they fail us we are able to get rid of them. So yeah, formation of the will, politics from the bottom to the top. And then he talked about national sovereignty being indispensable across all administrative elements in government. And also about the nation as its own constitutional agent. National sovereignty as represented by the people, the demos. And also that women, and men - now women did, through the suffragette movement, win the right to vote - women and men without any party privileges should be entitled to represent as patrons of the people in the legislative processes. And also that there would be no privileges for people representing at a political level.
So it may seem quite utopian, but I think these are really important things for us to start thinking about, about democracy and how we want to aspire for greater democracy, better democracy. And finally, and I think this is really important, respect for the electorate's willingness to vote, and that popular referendums on political issues are really important, and questions are fundamental rights. And if our representatives are not capable, are not worthy of representing the people, then they should be gotten rid of through election - not through the guillotine or anything like that. And Tony Benn, another great democrat, talked about the five essential rules of democracy, and I think one of the most important ones is "How do we get rid of you, if you fail the people?" and I feel that's a question the European Union has failed to answer.
So I'll wrap up there - I wanted to talk about some amazing artists who I think are doing fantastic work; Laura Grace Ford, who has done a lot of work around neoliberalism in urban spaces, how urban spaces are being sanitised through corporatism and landgrab, and, as Clemens sort of did yesterday, calling upon spirits and spectres of space.
And, I come from a very urban background, but we have the equivalents in urban spatiality and sort of human social relationships and that is in many cities, from London to Manchester - Manchester now being called "Manchatten" [dismayed laughter from audience] because of the landgrab by neoliberal capitalists which is squeezing artists further and further out of cities. That's something we need to bear in mind, and it's something that's happened in London for many, many years, and we need to find this sort of countercultural moment and I would really hope that artists do that. You know, the kind of globalist art of people like Anish Kapoor and Wolfgang Tillmans, you know, luxury art, might devalue, which might not be a bad thing, like luxury yachts and property, and make way for artists who are able to start thinking about what it means to be part of the demos and to still hold [your individuality? unclear] within that, that you don't lose your individualism when you talk about a community or communitarian relationship.
So those are the thoughts I'd like to leave behind, really, and obviously I'm open to questions and more conversation. Thank you.
[applause]
Alison Phipps [01:05:42-01:06:46]: That's lovely. And as you were speaking, I was thinking a lot about the importance of the idea of artistic freedom along with other freedoms that we particularly insist on and enshrine in law: academic freedom; freedom of the press; various freedoms which allow us to keep pushing these questions in different directions. But also, really rightly reminding us of the risks that are involved with that; that it is usually the artists, or the translators, the ones who are advocating for greater transparency who are usually the first to be burned or imprisoned or executed or have their freedoms curtailed, and that that is very much the situation in an awful lot of countries around the world and organisations like PEN [transcriber's note: PEN International], for example, doing amazing work just trying to advocate alongside those whose freedoms are being curtailed.
Which brings us to Francis, who is going to lighten the mood, he tells me, and open it all up.
Francis McKee [01:06:47-01:16:17]: I changed my mind. [laughter] I've only got fifteen minutes, so no time for jokes. [more laughter]
It's almost more like bulletpoints at this point. Democracy nineteen-twenty-eight it says on your sheet; not true - I wasn't born in a democracy, I was born in Northern Ireland, and democracy didn't arrive there until nineteen-sixty-nine with "one man, one vote" with a whole slew of American civil rights workers in the village I lived in. Immediately after that, there was arrest and internment without charge for quite a long time, it just got worse! So I have very little belief in democracy. At all. I've never lived in a democracy. I would love to live in a democracy - perhaps someday I will, but not right now.
So I think that's where I'm coming from. There's a beautiful essay by a guy called Seamus Deane who was my teacher in Dublin called "Civilians and Barbarians", about citizens and how the word "citizen" was invented by British colonialists to define who was a proper citizen and could vote and was a proper person, and everyone else was a barbarian. And it was clear that I'm a barbarian. [laughter]
So that's where I come from, among other things. In terms of looking at Brexit now, I'm shocked at the lack of political literacy. That's why we're in this situation; there's just no - it's not as bad in Scotland, it's worse in England, the press is worse in England and people just argue about straight and bent bananas, you know, the idiocy of this stuff. Whereas, you need a politically literate population, otherwise democracy's meaningless. And you see it in other places. So, I've been - Turkey for Taksim Square, people could argue me into the ground in the middle of that protest, [unclear] in Paris, people could argue me into the ground, the same in Mexico at different protests as well.
I went to protests in London for the NHS and everyone hissed at the people supporting the NHS from the street; they actually hissed [chuckle of disbelief] at the marchers, I couldn't believe that that's where it's got to. It's kinda like, just that if the understanding, if the understanding's not there, if the press obscures that understanding, if corporations obscure that understanding, you do not have democracy. So Brexit for me is meaningless, because you've got Donald Trump saying to Farage and Johnson "Why don't you get together" and the idea really is to asset-strip the NHS; it's nothing to do with democracy or freedom or independence or taking back control. That's all nonsense, we're wasting our time on it.
I blame Inspector Morse. [laughter]
Basically, it's his fault because for decades, everyone in Britain has talked about "the oldest democracy in the world", oh, it's so wonderful, such great history. You know, they haven't been democratic for so long but everyone's watching Inspector Morse and going to Topshop so often, people have forgotten - nobody cares, nobody knows, nobody wants to know, they want to know "if Inspector Morse is finishing, will there be another police series coming along soon?". We only ever watch police series if you think about it. Why do we only ever watch things about law and order? That's very confusing.
So that's where I kind of am on that. I like Derrida. I like Derrida because, at the end of his life, he gave up all the stuff - he gave a beautiful lecture just before he died, on animals. And he just said, you know, fuck you all. Basically, if you do not treat animals as equals in philosophy, the philosophy is dysfunctional; it cannot work. And nobody, from the Greeks on, have, so all of Western philosophy is out - it's in the bin. And there needs to be a new alignment, in which animals are treated as equals.
Samson: That's what we do in Nyau philosophy - the mask is called zilombo, which is the animal. The perfect state of the human is the animal state.
Francis: And here it isn't. You only have to look at the chicken industry. If you're a male chicken, life is hard. It only lasts about three seconds and how you die is horrible.
Anyway, so. [laughs] So I think there's enough about [unclear] here that connects to things like Extinction Rebellion, which - I have a lot of problems with Extinction Rebellion, it's very middle class that wants to restore, kind of, a new kind of capitalism. So it's not that good. But the main point is that the whole planet is dying. That's a good point. And their sister organisation that says we need to treat animals a different way - we need to treat animals and humans in a different way, or none of this is gonna survive. Brexit, no Brexit, doesn't matter a damn. None of it is going to survive, and none of it will survive in the way it is now. Which is very nice [unclear]. Beautiful stability, we can watch Inspector Morse every Sunday night; everything is beautiful. That's all on its way out. [chuckles] We're in the last days of that.
We're also currently in the Golden Age of refugees. This is the smaller age of refugees, in which refugees are treated with some respect, sometimes - only sometimes - but with climate change there's going to be millions of people. [chuckles] As far as the maps go, Carlisle is the cut-off point. Everything below Carlisle is gone. You know, heartfelt sympathy but everything below Carlisle is gone. [laughs + scattered audience laughter] We have to try and feel sad about that! But everything from Glasgow upwards, that's what's left. And the same in the south.
Everyone in between is on the move already - if you look at Syrian refugees, that's already based on drought. If you look at Ecuador, it's based on the lack of farming. India, it's the same. These are already climate change disasters. I was reading this morning something about an island - no, not an island, a whole town in Alaska that's on the move for the second time, because the permafrost has flooded their town so much they've now had to move for a second time. Everyone is on the move, and that's going to accelerate vastly. So it's nice to see there's a seedbank next door, because you're gonna need it. There is no official seedbank for Scotland, by the way. That's interesting as well. Even Syria has a seedbank. Scotland doesn't.
So, I think that is actually the main question. Brexit is trivial. It doesn't matter - it won't work anyway in terms of freedom of movement, it will make no difference. There won't be anything left because Trump will have stripped it with Farage and Johnson. What you've got left is a new society that's going to have to very local, because of climate change. All this flying all over the world and freedom of movement for artists will have to be from here to Carlisle. Not, [laughs] not Chile.
It has become much more local in some ways, there has been new compromise between local and international. It's interesting coming here yesterday looking at the town. The sort of implication for everyone you're talking to in the town is that retail is dead, the oil industry is dead. Well, how is the town going to survive in the future? There needs to be a new kind of commitment to what could work in a town, and I work in Sauchiehall Street - several fires there - you know, whether there's fires or not, the street is dead. And you're not going to get retail back so there needs to be a new kind of solution to "How do people live in a town?", "What do you do in a town?" "What do you do in a city?" "How do we live together and how do we treat animals?" All of those things, there has to be a completely new reconfiguration of how we live. And everything in between is just passing time.
We're conducting our own versions of Inspector Morse on a daily basis, you know, to keep us from having to look at those bigger issues. And the art world is part of that, in some ways. Some extremes of the art world, it's a flagship for neoliberalism. Nothing more, that's what it is. Others, it isn't. The closer to the ground, the more you get real creativity. It's a kind of spectrum. So there needs to be a decision on where does art fit in that as well? And how does it work?
And actually, I've very little interest in democracy; I'm more interested in anarchism. [laughter] Why isn't that on the list? Much better than democracy, you know. And all the things we've been implementing, secretly, in the CCA have coming from anarchists in squats. [laughs] Not from democracy! You have a vote, you look to a democracy - it's corrupt. You look to an anarchist squat, there's a lot of really good examples, and that's what we've been borrowing from, is anarchist squats. And I've a lot of faith in that. [laughs] Might even get a tattoo! [laughter]
So that's about it. I'm finishing early.
Alison: You're finishing very early.
Francis: Yeah, no need to say any more. I've mentioned the apocalypse. [laughter]
Alison: Death of Ireland, death of art, the apocalypse...
Francis: Yeah, I'm trying not to depress you. [laughter] So yeah, I think that would be enough.
[applause]
Alison Phipps [01:16:18-01:18:10] Thank you very much indeed to Francis, Manick and Samson for their provocations beneath this question of democracy, the full eradication of democracy and replacement with something yet to come. Thank you for pulling my hand down! [laughs] And just looking and exploring these questions of freedom and questions of what's often called "the necropolitics of Europe", the way which Europe too has failed radically to protect. And then the question, the gift, the Dionysian, the anarchy that is within the quest for the mask.
The calabash...as this passed round this morning, each of you was stroking animals - you might not have noticed as you looked at the carvings on it, but this question of how we live ecological lives beneath or maybe gently starting to live alongside the question of what democracy is and how we might live together.
So we're going to have plenty of time for discussion and questions, and what I'd like to do to start with is, rather than just going straight into Q & A is just let you replenish your glasses and mugs, and give you a few minutes until we start waving the calabash and tapping the mic to just chat to the folk next to you about what struck you, what are your questions, do you want to hear more? And when we've had a little bit of gentler time to come together and gather ourselves, we'll gather back into the full group and we'll start to take some questions, some points for discussion, some openings out, some questions for ourselves.
Okay, so, maybe ten minutes just for that? And if you do need to nip out and use the public loos, do so. [crowd noise resumes]