Banksy's back in Bethlehem

Banksy opens hotel on Bethlehem barrier wall

Pictures posted on social media just a few minutes ago...

See The Independent's article:

Banksy opens Bethlehem hotel decorated like English gentlemen’s club

Apparently it's 'a real business venture, not an art stunt'

• Jack Shepherd 
• @JackJShepherd 
• Friday 3 March 2017 12:09 GMT
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From Dismaland to The Son of a Migrant from Syria, Banksy has created some of the most thought-provoking artworks in recent history.

In another bold statement, the famed graffiti artist has opened a hotel just metres away from the controversial barrier wall that separates the Israeli and Palestinian territory in the West Bank. 

Titled The Walled Off Hotel, the nine-bedroom building based in Bethlehem is staffed by local people - none of whom knew Banksy was the one setting up the hotel - and aims to bring tourists to the destination.

While the anonymous artist’s team are insisting the hotel is a ‘real business venture, not an art stunt’ according to The Guardian, there are dozens of Banksy works within, as well as a themed bar and interactive exhibits. 

The signing of the Balfour Declaration - which helped establish Israel 100 year ago - is depicted in one, while the hotel is “decorated to resemble an English gentlemen’s club from colonial times” to represent Britain’s role in the region.

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Read more on The Guardian, reporting from Palestine:

British artist launches Walled Off Hotel in hope of bringing Israeli tourists – and dialogue – to West Bank city

Emma Graham-Harrison in Bethlehem

Friday 3 March 2017 11.28 GMT

There is unlikely to be much room for last-minute travellers at Bethlehem’s latest inn. The Walled Off Hotel might sound utilitarian, even bleak: 10 rooms nestled against the controversial barrier wall separating Israel from the Palestinian territories.

But it offers travellers something much more elusive than the latest toiletries or a fancy spa. The lodging in the historic city is hotel, protest and art in one. It is the latest work of the British street artist Banksy.

The hotel, which was opened to the media on Friday, aims to bring jobs and tourists to a town whose pilgrim and sightseeing-based economy has been ravaged by ever tighter Israeli controls on travel between Israeli and Palestinian territories.

The artist, who fiercely guards his anonymity, also wants to spark dialogue, with his biggest target market not his legions of international fans, but young Israelis who might normally spend their weekends clubbing in Tel Aviv.

His support team insists the hotel is a real business venture, not an art stunt. Its nine rooms and one suite will be open for bookings on its website later this month. 

There have been few reasons for Israelis to visit Bethlehem in recent years, because they are banned by law from visiting the town and all its main tourist sites.

But the hotel is located in an area just outside the town and still under Israeli control, and therefore legal for them to visit.

To encourage dialogue it will host exhibitions by Palestinians, giving artists who have few opportunities to travel a chance to reach international audiences. It will have a “colonial” theme, with chefs serving traditional afternoon tea to those who want a glimpse of the establishment.

But the hotel is located in an area just outside the town and still under Israeli control, and therefore legal for them to visit.

To encourage dialogue it will host exhibitions by Palestinians, giving artists who have few opportunities to travel a chance to reach international audiences. It will have a “colonial” theme, with chefs serving traditional afternoon tea to those who want a glimpse of the establishment.

Banksy first visited Bethlehem more than a decade ago. In 2005 and 2007, he created some of his best-known pieces on the West Bank barrier wall separating Israel and the Palestinian territories.

Among them are works depicting a girl frisking a soldier, and a dove in a flak jacket. Some locals took offence at the time, and an image of a soldier checking a donkey’s identity papers was painted over. 

But others have survived, to join a must-see list for many tourists heading to the church of the nativity.

After the 2014 Gaza war, Banksy was smuggled into the territory to create a series of art works and an ironic tourist video. It urges viewers to “make this the year you discover a new destination”, before taking them on a virtual tour.

Banksy generally avoids commenting on his work, saying he prefers to let the images speak for themselves, but the video ends with the camera lingering on an overtly political message, also spray-painted on to a wall: “If we wash our hands of the conflict between the powerful and the powerless we side with the powerful – we don’t remain neutral.”

For all the fierce critique of Israeli policies, Banksy has focused on bringing Israelis and Palestinians together. In the dystopian “bemusement” park Dismaland that he created in 2015, he displayed works by three Palestinian and three Israeli artists side by side.

That angered Shadi Alzaqzouq, one of the Palestinian artists, so much that he covered his work with a sheet on which he had written “RIP Gaza” before lying down for a “die-in” in front of the message. The sheet stayed up for the duration of the exhibition, with a notice explaining the protest.

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See more pictures on the Guardian's website:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/03/banksy-opens-bethlehem-barrier-wall-hotel

February to March

Hey February, you've been such a progressively amazing month, from dark to light, from doubts to joy. Thank you!!

And thanks to everyone involved :) x

March, you're one of my favourite months! Winter is ending.

So much love.

Little soundtrack:

Lana Del Rey - 'Love'

De Sospel à Vintimille - Alpes Maritimes : Le courage d'aider

Hier à Sospel :

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Les détails dans Nice Matin :

Crise des réfugiés:

un pique-nique improvisé et bon enfant contre les contrôles aux frontières

Photo Julien Avinent

Près de cent-cinquante militants se sont rassemblés pour un pique-nique convivial et pacifiste au carrefour symbolique Saint-Gervais (point de ralliement entre les communes de Sospel, Breil et Olivetta en Italie).

"Ouvrez vos cœurs, pas nos coffres". Au milieu du pique-nique, une banderole pour donner le ton d'une manifestation qui se voulait pacifiste et symbolique autour de l'accueil des migrants. Une banderole qui s'est dressée face aux forces de l'ordre présentes, avec l'objectif de "dénoncer la débauche d'argent public dans le cadre des contrôles aux frontières des migrants". 

La manifestation a été relayée sur les réseaux sociaux et notamment sur la page Facebook de l'association "Roya Citoyenne".

A noter, la présence du défenseur des migrants, Cédric Herrou et de Teresa Maffeis, responsable de l'association pour la démocratie à Nice (ADN).

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Et un peu plus tard à Vintimille :

La troupe du Théâtre National de Nice interprète la pièce Esperanza devant l'Eglise San Antonio à Vintimille, Italie, quelques heures après la vandalisation des affiches du spectacle.

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Ces affiches pour un spectacle sur les migrants ont été vandalisées par un groupuscule d'extrême droite

 

Nice Matin - PAR GREGORY LECLERC Mis à jour le 25/02/2017 à 18:23

Dans la nuit de vendredi à samedi, les affiches fraîchement collées de son spectacle, qui doit être joué au Théâtre national de Nice (TNN) en mars, ont été saccagées. 

"Je suis écœuré. Il n’y a plus une seule affiche pour notre spectacle." Hovnatan Avédikian, 35 ans, metteur en scène arménien de "Esperanza", est en colère.

Dans la nuit de vendredi à samedi, les affiches fraîchement collées de son spectacle, qui doit être joué au Théâtre national de Nice (TNN) en mars, ont été saccagées. Recouvertes par des appels à "combattre l’islamisme" ou à "défendre la France". Appel lancé par le groupuscule d’extrême droite "Génération Identitaire".

Ce spectacle, de l’Algérien Aziz Chouaki, évoque l’histoire d’un groupe de migrants qui s’embarque pour Lampedusa sur un modeste bateau, "l’Esperanza". Il doit être joué à partir du 2 mars au Théâtre national de Nice.

"Il n’y a aucun message politique dans cette pièce. Nous ne donnons pas de leçon de morale, à personne", s’insurge le metteur en scène arménien. Dans leur volonté de s’inscrire dans le tissu social local, l’auteur et le metteur en scène ont répété le spectacle à la prison de Nice.

L’affiche de "Esperanza", vandalisée, montrait un groupe d’hommes, sur une scène, dont un portant un keffieh.

"C’est peut-être cet élément, et la peau basanée de certains d’entre eux qui ont gêné, ou alors nos noms, un Algérien et un Arménien", regrette Hovnatan Avédikian. "Massacrer nos affiches, c’est un geste agressif et régressif politiquement", ajoute-t-il.

Le Théâtre national de Nice annonce qu'il déposera plainte dans les prochaines heures.

Bristol, Massive Attack, the Colton Hall and Black British History...

Let's talk about British history...Bristol has very strong links in its history with the UK's colonial past, having been an important port for the colonies in America and therefore a key point in the slave trade. 

But so has Liverpool and of course London. Let's not forget it. Just like Nantes, Bordeaux and Paris...Massive Attack and their genius complex formula, doubled with an amazingly rich and diverse music have almost "forced" Bristol to get out of its illusion about its glorious maritime past and face the reality and ambivalence of the colonial era. And that's not a small achievement for artists!

In Bristol, activists are still campaigning for change in regard to their 'Black' community's right to equality. The case of the Colston Hall is almost an anecdote, but it has become a symbolic one. 

Here's a straight-to-the-point column about it, in the Guardian:

Bristol’s Colston Hall is an affront to a multicultural city. Let’s rename it now

David Olusoga

No city is more wilfully blind to its history. It should stop honouring the slave trader who gives the venue his name

The zombie walks again. The same threadbare straw man has been clumsily wheeled out and the same mantra repeated. The same song from the same hymn book once again fills the air. Yet the rhetorical stance taken by those opposed to the renaming of Bristol’s Colston Hall is less a cogent argument and more a tacit accusation – attack camouflaged as a form of defence.

The argument goes like this. To seek to rename the concert hall, or to want to topple the statue of Edward Colston that overlooks the docks from which Bristol’s slave ships once sailed is – somehow – to seek to erase a part of the city’s history. It is a contemptibly disingenuous position and Colston’s defenders know it. Buildings are not named in order to help us remember our history, they are named to honour rich and powerful men; and sometimes they are men whom we should revile rather than honour.

The identical strategy was deployed last year by those determined to ensure that the squat little statue of Cecil Rhodes, affixed to Oxford’s Oriel College, was not permitted to fall. Rhodes was saved, not by the force of argument, but by the same commodity that encouraged his 19th-century defenders to tolerate his crimes and turn blind eyes to his abuses – money. And money is what for centuries has persuaded Bristol’s civic leaders to focus monomaniacally on the undoubted philanthropy of Edward Colston. Those who want to rename Colston Hall, like the students who want to topple Cecil Rhodes (not that I agree completely with them or their tactics), are campaigners for a fuller, more honest remembrance of history, not its erasure.

The true erasure of Bristol’s critical role in slavery and the slave trade began centuries ago, when slavery was intentionally re-imagined as a “respectable trade”. In the 18th century, a nationwide propaganda campaign attempted to methodically wipe out the truth and convince an increasingly morally queasy nation that slavery was essentially benign. Slavery’s propagandists argued in pamphlets and books that the hundreds of thousands of Africans who toiled on Britain’s Caribbean plantations had better diets, better homes and more free time than the poor of England. Africans, they suggested, actively preferred slavery over freedom and were a people naturally suited to bondage and the whip.

No British city is more wilfully blind to its history than Bristol. Having lived in Liverpool and London, two cities whose connections to slavery run deep, I can say that Bristol stands head and shoulders above the competition in its capacity to obscure its past and obfuscate its history. For three centuries, slavery has been hidden behind that wall of lies and denial, but the biggest lie of all was given literal solidity when it was cast into bronze and affixed to the pedestal upon which stands the statue of Edward Colston. The unctuous dedication on the plaque describes Colston as “one of the most virtuous and wise sons of the city”.

Those words were written in 1895, by which time Edward Colston had been in his grave for 174 years, and Bristol was perhaps two thirds of the way through her long age of denial about the centrality of slavery and the slave trade to its past and its wealth. Edward Colston was neither virtuous nor wise. Amoral and avaricious, he was also – let us not forget – a killer. Thousands of Africans died to generate the wealth he later lavished on his home city. The real victims of forgetting are the men, women and children who were enslaved by Colston, a deputy governor of the Royal African Company – the entity that transported more Africans into slavery than any in British history.

The current refurbishment of Colston Hall, due to be completed in 2020, is, of course, the perfect opportunity and the right moment for the venue to be renamed.

I know black Bristolians who refuse to set foot in Colston Hall while it carries the name of a slave trader and to their enormous credit, Massive Attack, Bristol’s most innovative and successful band, have for years refused to play there.

Those opposed to renaming the hall need to consider exactly what it says about the city each time we ask a black musician to perform under Colston’s name. What message does that send out about us and our respect for others? Names matter, gestures matter and uncomfortable histories do not simply go away. But there are other pressing reasons why Bristol needs to take this step.

Bristol’s record on racial equality is the worst of any major British city. A report jointly written by Manchester’s Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity and the Runnymede Trust, concluded that the 16% of Bristol’s population who are BAME – black, Asian and minority ethnic – are subject to what it calls an “ethical penalty”. Non-white Bristolians gain fewer academic qualifications in the city’s schools, they find fewer opportunities in the local job market and suffer inequalities in health provision, compared to the city’s white communities. Dr Nissa Finney, of the CDE, noted that the extent of Bristol’s “ethnic inequalities is striking and it has not improved in the last 15 years”.

Colston is an issue that has deeply divided Bristol, which is perhaps appropriate as few cities are as divided as this one. Clifton, the Georgian quarter overlooking the Avon Gorge, is almost a city in itself – a middle-class citadel high on the hill, towering over the largely white, working class and comparatively deprived areas of Bedminster, Ashton and Southville. To the east is St Pauls – run down but being rapidly gentrified, it is the long-established centre of the city’s West Indian population.

The socioeconomic and racial zoning of Bristol is worthy of the Deep South, and that geographic distance is the enabler of profound differences of perspective. From the Georgian squares of Clifton, Edward Colston might seem like merely a feature of the city’s rich heritage. From St Pauls, Bristol’s seemingly undimmed determination to honour his memory and marginalise his crimes appears insensitive, even callous.

We need to be honouring our commitments to the life chances of the thousands of minority children currently in Bristol schools, not a long dead purveyor of human flesh.

We are better than this. I look forward to 2020 when, as part of a mixed-race, multicultural Bristolian crowd, I hope to finally watch Massive Attack perform in their home city – in the venue formerly known as Colston Hall.

Link: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/feb/26/colston-hall-bristol-should-look-honestly-at-its-history

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This is what Robert Del Naja had to say about it in 2009:

"They've spent £18m on it, and our point was, if you're going to rebrand Colston Hall, don't you want to think about changing its name so it's not named after a slave-ship builder? You could just alter it, so it's called the Colston Hall and the Sierra Leone Centre, or the Freetown Centre. You don't have to erase Colston, you just add something about West Africa to the equation, so when people come to Bristol, it's not hidden. We're just trying to address some of these things, un-Tippex them, so that it changes the way people look at the city."

(In The Guardian, on Sept. 10, 2009)

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This artwork was created by Robert Del Naja in 2009 as part of the impressive series for the band's fifth album, Heligoland, totally inspired by the theme of 'minstrels' and 'blackface' colonial and post-colonial entertainment, as a means to remind us of our soft-under-the-carpet history...

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In The Bristol Post:

Bristol's Colston Hall 'an affront to a multicultural city' and must be renamed, says David Olusoga

By marccooper  |  Posted: February 26, 2017

A prominent historian says Bristol's Colston Hall is "an affront to a multicultutral city" and should be renamed.

British-Nigerian historian David Olusoga said Bristol was "blind" to its historical connections with slavery and and "has socioeconomic and racial zoning of Bristol worthy of the Deep South".

Colston Hall is currently undergoing a £45 million refurbished and has asked people in Bristol what new features they would like to see inside.

In response, some campaigners have used the public consultation to demand that the name of the 17th century slave trader be dropped.

Mr Olusoga, who grew up in Newcastle after arriving to the UK as a 14-year-old boy from Nigeria, said he supports the campaign to drop the Colston name from the venue.

Writing in The Guardian today (Sunday, February 26, 2017) he said: "No British city is more wilfully blind to its history than Bristol. Having lived in Liverpool and London, two cities whose connections to slavery run deep, I can say that Bristol stands head and shoulders above the competition in its capacity to obscure its past and obfuscate its history."

The Colston Hall name debate has been running for years, and Bristol's most famous band Massive Attack have long refused to perform at the venue.

We reported last week how the Bristol Music Trust has said that the new £45 million refurbishment may result in a name-change if a sponsor decides to invest heavily in return for naming rights.

In a Bristol Post poll, readers voted two to one in favour of keeping the name.

But Mr Olusoga said: "[Their argument is that] to seek to rename the concert hall, or to want to topple the statue of Edward Colston that overlooks the docks from which Bristol's slave ships once sailed is – somehow – to seek to erase a part of the city's history.

"It is a contemptibly disingenuous position and Colston's defenders know it.

"Buildings are not named in order to help us remember our history, they are named to honour rich and powerful men; and sometimes they are men whom we should revile rather than honour."

The current refurbishment of Colston Hall, which first opened as a concert venue in 1867, is timed to coincide with its 150th birthday.

Mr Olusoga, who is also a TV presenter, said: "The current refurbishment of Colston Hall is, of course, the perfect opportunity and the right moment for the venue to be renamed.

"I know black Bristolians who refuse to set foot in Colston Hall while it carries the name of a slave trader and to their enormous credit, Massive Attack, Bristol's most innovative and successful band, have for years refused to play there.

"We need to be honouring our commitments to the life chances of the thousands of minority children currently in Bristol schools, not a long dead purveyor of human flesh.

"We are better than this. As part of a mixed-race, multicultural Bristolian crowd, I hope to finally watch Massive Attack perform in their home city – in the venue formerly known as Colston Hall."

Read here: http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/bristol-s-colston-hall-an-affront-to-a-multicultural-city-and-must-be-renamed-says-david-olusoga/story-30164293-detail/story.html#TCakGco1rfcmZUfQ.99

Read also: Comment - why are we still banging on about Edward Colston?

"The Art of Light" - UVA about Massive Attack

It has been such an honour and a pleasure to work with some of the greatest artists of our time that I'm every day a little more grateful and joyful!

Massive Attack have revolutionised music, art and the combination of music and art!
An they have done it through paintings and videos but also and mainly through their stage installation. And that work has been done with a mesmerizing collective from London, know as United Visual Artists.

They have launched this week the first of a series of three films about the creations that they do. And it is absolutely gorgeous.

Watch part I here:

"The Art of Light"

Published on 23 Feb 2017 by Nowness

In the first episode of a new series, Illuminating, innovative London-based art and design group United Visual Artists explore the emotional and physical effect light can have on people. 

Director Ryan Hopkinson spotlights their work with British band Massive Attack. 

Illuminating: The Shared Experience

A mesmerizing presentation of light from art and design group United Visual Artists 

In the first episode of our new series, Illuminating, a trilogy of films showcasing a range of innovative installations by London-based art and design group UVA, co-founder Matt Clark examines the use of light as a means to communicate information—and misinformation.

“Matt Clark examines the use of light as a means to communicate information—and misinformation”

Focusing on the ephemeral form and the physical and emotional effect of light on an audience, director Ryan Hopkinson spotlights UVA’s work with British band Massive Attack.

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More about United Vissal Artists:

Nowness x UVA

Illuminating - a new commission for Nowness

We’re pleased to announce 'Illuminating’, a three-part series for Nowness directed by Ryan Hopkinson that takes viewers on the road with UVA during 2016 as we completed new collaborative, permanent and temporary works.

Combining in-situ footage of the final pieces with behind-the-scenes imagery, the films feature 'Message from the Unseen World' at Paddington Central, projects with Massive Attack and James Blake and then journey across to MONA, Tasmania where we exhibited 440Hz and to the Day for Night festival in Houston, TX for the unveiling of Musica Universalis, a new temporary kinetic light sculpture.

Part one ‘Illuminating: The Shared Experience’ which explores the use of light as a means to communicate information and/or misinformation can be watched here: https://www.nowness.com/series/illuminating/the-shared-experience-uva-massive-attack

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United Visual Artists (UVA) is a London based creative practice founded in 2003. 

UVA’s artworks range from small-scale, wall-based pieces to large-scale sculptural installations for cultural institutions and public spaces.

UVA’s lines of enquiry include the tension between real and synthesised experiences - the questioning of our relationship with technology, and the creation of phenomena that transcend the purely physical.

UVA have been commissioned by institutions including The Barbican Curve Gallery, Victoria & Albert Museum, Royal Academy of Arts, The Serpentine Gallery, The Wellcome Trust, The British Library, Manchester International Festival, YCAM Japan and MONA museum in Tasmania. Their work has been exhibited at galleries including Blaine Southern, Bryce Wolkaowitz and Riflemaker in London. Permanent works can be found internationally in Toronto, Dubai, Philadelphia and most recently in Paddington London. Editions of Continuum and Always / Never are now in private collections and Our Time commissioned by MONA for Dark Mofo 2016 has been acquired by the museum.

Whilst self-directed enquiry forms the centre of their practice, UVA have collaborated with other specialists in their field. Most notable include Massive Attack on their live performance projects, choreographer Benjamin Millepied and the Paris Opéra Ballet, sound artist Bernie Krause for The Great Animal Orchestra at the Fondation Cartier and most recently with the theoretical neurobiologist Mark Changizi for the Origins of Art exhibition at the MONA Museum in Tasmania.

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Read more on NOWNESS - http://bit.ly/2mc4xQ2

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Two modest pictures to illustrate Massive Attack's incredible shows...

 London, July 2016

Dublin, January 2016