TATE MODERN 10TH BIRTHDAY SEES ACTION AGAINST SLICK BP SPONSORSHIP

DEAD FISH AND OIL-DRENCHED BIRDS HANG FROM TURBINE HALL

Tate Mod­ern was forced to close down parts of its No Soul For Sale tenth anniver­sary exhi­bi­tion on Sat­ur­day (15 May) while it strug­gled to remove dozens of dead fish and oil-soaked birds (1) hang­ing from huge black bal­loons let loose in the Tur­bine Hall.

DEAD FISH AND OIL-DRENCHED BIRDS HANG FROM TURBINE HALL

Tate Mod­ern was forced to close down parts of its No Soul For Sale tenth anniver­sary exhi­bi­tion on Sat­ur­day (15 May) while it strug­gled to remove dozens of dead fish and oil-soaked birds (1) hang­ing from huge black bal­loons let loose in the Tur­bine Hall.

Art activists from LIBERATE TATE, a grow­ing net­work ded­i­cat­ed to ensur­ing the muse­um drop its spon­sor­ship deal with BP, infil­trat­ed Tate Mod­ern’s Tur­bine Hall and released dozens of heli­um-filled black bal­loons with dead ani­mals attached. Crowds of tourists and art lovers gath­ered to watch the bal­loons rise up in the air until they filled the ceil­ing of the Tur­bine Hall.

Josephine Buoys, who took part in the art action, said: “We took this action whilst Tate spon­sor BP is cre­at­ing the largest oil paint­ing in the world. Across the Gulf of Mex­i­co ecosys­tems and liveli­hoods are being dev­as­tat­ed by their oil spill. Every day Tate scrubs clean BP’s pub­lic image with the deter­gent of cool pro­gres­sive art. Yet there is noth­ing
cool about a cor­po­ra­tion that cares more about its prof­its than life or the future of our frag­ile world.”

By late after­noon Tate staff had burst some the oil bub­ble-like black bal­loons by climb­ing onto a high gantry, but many remained out of reach and the rot­ting fish and seabirds hov­ered above the evening’s cel­e­bra­tions head­lined by Thurston Moore of Son­ic Youth. Rumours cir­cu­lat­ed that Tate would com­mis­sion a marks­man to shoot the remain­ing bal­loons down from the top of the for­mer pow­er sta­tion.

LIBERATE TATE said: “Every time we step inside the muse­um Tate makes us com­plic­it with acts that are harm­ing peo­ple and cre­at­ing envi­ron­men­tal destruc­tion and cli­mate change, acts that will one day seem as archa­ic as the slave trade. We call on Tate to become a respon­si­ble, eth­i­cal and tru­ly sus­tain­able organ­i­sa­tion for the 21st cen­tu­ry and drop its
spon­sor­ship by oil com­pa­nies. As a pub­lic insti­tu­tion the Tate’s Trustees, chaired as they are by an ex-CEO of BP, must aban­don its asso­ci­a­tion with BP. All vis­i­tors to the Tate must be able to enjoy great art with a clear con­science about the impact of the muse­um on soci­ety and the envi­ron­ment.”

LIBERATE TATE dis­trib­uted a com­mu­niqué (online here http://bit.ly/9RFfxJ) through­out the Tate Mod­ern 10th anniver­sary promis­ing fur­ther actions to ‘free art from oil’ by artists and activists across Britain until Tate ends its asso­ci­a­tion with BP.

LIBERATE TATE have issued an open invi­ta­tion for artists, activists, art lovers and oth­er con­cerned mem­bers of the pub­lic to act to ensure that Tate ends its oil spon­sor­ship by the end of 2011 ahead of Tate Mod­ern’s expan­sion into its cleaned-out under­ground oil tanks.

LIBERATE TATE con­tact details:
web: www.twitter.com/liberatetate email: liberatetate@gmail.com

(1) — the ‘seabirds’ were made by mem­bers of Lib­er­ate Tate