Mutual Massage

Tracey Emin was chosen by Andrea Rose of the British Council to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale at a cost of £250,000 to the taxpayer.

Tracey Emin’s work is backed by and exhibited at the White Cube in London.

The White Cube is owned by Jay Jopling.

Jay Jopling is married to British artist Sam Taylor-Wood.

Sam Taylor-Wood’s work is also featured at the Venice Biennale this year, representing the Ukraine. Yes, the Ukraine.

The Ukraine’s exhibition is commissioned by Peter Doroshenko.

Peter Doroshenko is Director of the Baltic centre in Gateshead.

The entrance to the Baltic centre has been “transformed” by the work of Mark Titchner.

Mark Titchner is another British artist selected by Mr Doroshenko to represent the Ukraine in Venice. Yes, really.

Andrea and Tracey were joint jury members last year at John Moores 24 in Liverpool.

In her 2006 John Moores credentials Andrea Rose is listed as being a trustee of the Baltic centre in Gateshead.

Tracey, Mark and Sam are all beneficiaries of the British Council’s patronage.

Sam Taylor-Wood is famous for having produced a film of a man masturbating.

Tracey Emin has a piece called Masturbating at the Venice Biennale.

Through quangos such as the British Council the unrepresented British taxpayer funds this incestuous wank, and once again won’t get a penny back from the sales of the work it sponsors at such expense. To get a result like that you have to move in the right circles. And keep your hand in (see graphic). 

Comments

[deirdre thompson]

and Sam Taylor Wood had a show at the Baltic http://www.balticmill.com/whatsOn/past/ExhibitionDetail.php?exhibID=48

[arthur]

What this proves is that the Art world is more than capable of looking after itself at this level. 'It ain't what you know,etc....' The question is why have the British Council spending public money on it. Surely it would be much more cost-effective to contract out the organising of British representations at international events to the gallery owners who are well-connected enough in other countries to make such a task feasible with much lower overheads than the Council will ever manage. It will be interesting to see if the National Audit Office come to the same conclusion.

"It isn't the man who wants to who continues the tradition, it's the man who can, and sometimes he's the man who knows least about it. To this end, programmes and good intentions are of little use." (Eugenio Montale)

By tossing £MMs at the Council, we simply ensure that it continues to be 'the man who can.' Is this really value for money?

[Neil]

I'm not sure trusting the 'super-rich' to get this kind of thing right would work either. Mr Jay Jopling is no Jay Gatsby but he is the son of a Tory peer Lord Joplin who was a Chief Whip to Margaret Thatcher and recently spoke in a House of Lords debate on The Resale Regulations for Artists. Tracey Emin's bling is apparently being sold on to Elton John by this diamond geezer Jay who was at Eton and at Elton's civil partnership ceremony and is the agent trying to flog Damien
Hurst's much-publicised 'skull' with the £12 million of ethical diamonds to a Mr George Michael, formerly lead singer of 'Wham'.

It is interesting too to note the expressions on the faces when the Italian viewing public in British Council's pavilion turn away from the pornography pinned to the wall
and then walk smartly out without a second glance at the twigs Emin has 'had installed' in the centre of these British Council managed rooms in Venice. Not 'the right twigs for an eagle's nest'* in my view: but who are we to judge?

Yeats would probably not approve of anything like this either but would rather raise a glass of Murphy's to the Amicus picket line outside British Council's Dublin office.

[* last line of a poem Yeats wrote about Guinness and his attitude to art in 1914:
'To a Wealthy Man who promised a Second Subscription to the Dublin Municipal Gallery if it were proved the People wanted Pictures']

[William Reid-Spencer]

Hi, I was just browsing through the internet trying to find an article and came across your blog. I must say it's been very interesting to read your articles about the British Council.

You hold an entirely different view to that of my parents. Both my mother and father work for the British Council in quite respectable senior positions in their sub-departments. They love they're job, so much so that we barely get a glimpse of them during the day.

Am wondering where your opinions stem from David? As you can imagine, I hear nothing but praise for the BC and the work they do internationally. It's very interesting to hear a diffrent side to the story.

Will

[David]

Hi Will

Thanks for the message. The last time I heard from your team it was from a non-existent journalist who was proposing to publish an article critical of the BC. What are the giveaways this time?

1. I have worked alongside the BC for over 30 years, and have never met anybody, inside or outside, who so loves the BC that their children barely get a glimpse of them. As for hearing “nothing but praise”, it suggests you have never even met anybody from the British Council itself, much less anybody who has to deal with the animal.
2. Both parents in “quite respectable senior positions” in unidentified “sub-departments”? Would anybody describe their parents thus? And the obfuscation is so clumsy. I know being specific puts you in a corner, but really you have to better than that.
3. “William Reid-Spencer”. Hmm. Which Reid-Spencers would that be – the Northumberland or the Suffolk branch? Or perhaps the Disneyworld offshoot? Plausible as it sounds, the surname does not exist.

What you, and those you represent, need to realise is that there is nothing in what I am saying or doing that can be resolved by being secretive and devious. You have only to face up to your responsibilities squarely and honestly, and sort them out. It’s called management, and it really isn’t that difficult.

David

[arthur]

You are quite right, Neil. I too am sure that the 'super-rich' are not the best people for the job.

However, I am often surprised how often British art finds its way into exhibitions, all over Europe and the States at least, without any intervention from the British Council, but as a result of direct contact between exhibiting institutions, galleries, agents,dealers and artists. The world is a far smaller place with far better communications than when the Council started its work in this field: what is the Council adding now, apart from cost? There are more imaginative and, I suspect, more representative ways of handling British participation in international arts events than simply writing the Council a cheque and encouraging its traditional cosy nepotism.

[Nishat]

Are they really doing that?????? What an odd choice! No offence intended to the artist but I would not want to see that!

[David]

Nishat - very few people would want to see that. And even fewer would like to think that this "represented" them. But the central issue here is who made the decision and how and whether it is in order to assign large amounts of public money on such a basis. Nice to hear from you again. David

[Neil]

Most of Tracey Emin's exhibits are dated 1990-1996 yet British
Council Italy's website claims
Ms Emin will 'produce new work specifically for The British Pavilion'. Who is kidding who?
Compare and contrast ........

http://www.britishcouncil-venice.org/

http://www.britishcouncil.org/italy-arts-venicebiennale07.htm

[Nishat]

Hi David. Finally had a chance to catch up on your blogs post-exams! They've been really interesting and amusing, and the pictures you put with them are very funny!

I know I hold a completely different opinion about the Council and have disagreed with you before in the past, but I completely agree with your opinion on this one. [You would never have thought the day would come right!] I wouldn't finance this artwork to represent Britain and leaving it down to one person against a whole group is just stupid!

[David]

Nishat - your point of view is refreshing as ever. I would say to you that however much we agree or disagree about what the organisation does (and I suspect we don't disagree that much), we could probably agree with almost everybody that if the British Council is to continue to be government funded then, setting aside the issue of its charitable / diplomatic / civil service etc status, it must have systems in place which ensure that it is representative, transparent and, above all, accountable. It is, I put it to you, because it evades accountability that it also lacks legitimacy.

[Neil]

I have just discovered how France chooses its commissioner for the Venice Biennale. They choose the artist first and then the artist chooses the commissioner - a role that in Britain goes (by default) to The British Council each year.

This year's French representative Sophie Calle put a small ad in a newspaper and she got over 200 enthusiastic replies from folk keen to help her in Venice. She reviewed all the CVs before she finally settled on Daniel Buren who is of course a rather famous French 'conceptual artist' in his own right from the Mitterand era.

There is a description of this 'equal opportunities'
selection process posted on
his own website - along with
a copy of the small ad to which he and 200 others had replied.

The contrast with the British Council stitchup could not I
think be starker ...........

neil

http://www.danielburen.com/1_actualite/actualites_expositions_accueil.htm

[Arthur]

Absolutely right, Neil.

Now that the Council's thread-counting, committee-ignoring, chum-choosing role in the Biennale is a little better known, it is surely time to 'follow the money.' Who really paid for this farrago? The British taxpayer, though Grant-In-Aid to the British Council? Or the fee-paying students of the various British Institutes in Italy?

'Why does it matter?' you may ask. If it is 'public' money, then all those readers who are represented by one can ask their MPs to enquire into the whole process in a Commons question. Or write directly to the Public Accounts and Foreign Affairs Committees, putting the matter in their hands. If, however, the £250K was money moved around in Italy from locally-collected fees for language classes then there is no sense in our being indignant: the Council can do what it likes with its own money. If this were the case, the Italians themselves would have paid for British participation in the Biennale. Would they be pleased? I suspect not. But I also suspect that, were they to enquire, the hosts would be told that Tracey's redecoration, Andrea's thread counting, etc was paid for out of British public money.

And therein lies the beauty of this insididous approach to 'cultural relations: there are no 'checks and balances' because the Council can be anything it chooses. Independent or not independent? Publically-funded or self-funded? Depends who's asking: in any case, you'll always get the right answer for the Council's position. If you get one at all, of course. As the Libya ELT 'scholarship' showed, even with a Freedom of Information Act question, unless you persist, youare much more likely to get an 'accidentally inaccurate' reply.

[Paul Grady]

About 25 years ago, a U.S. civil servant that I knew drew up a geneolgy of all of the Koreans working in administrative support positions in education centers for the U.S. Eighth Army in the 2nd Infantry Division. It turned out most of them were related. I am glad to see that the British apply the same principle in selecting artists as official representatives to overseas exhibitions. It is also nice to see that the work pays better, too.