backlight i believe that fifty years from nowall expressions of art... ...regardless of whether we call them art,will be very different from now. we have to be prepared for everything. cultural barbarians
economic impact of 3d printing, up until twenty years ago,there were two wine-producing countries. france and italy. together they werea kind of aristocracy... ...both in terms of regionsand production methods.
after world war ii, the americansdiscovered wine in italy and france... ...and took it home with them. and then they started producing their ownwines in california. that was unthinkable. they started making a wine that copiedall the aristocracy's secrets... ...but gave the taste a different twist.more simple, you could say. now they are making winesin bulgaria, australia and chile. they are barbarians comparedto the french chateau... ...or the big local producerwho has been making wine for 200 years. compared to themthey are barbarians, of course.
it was an immutable worldthat was turned completely upside down. the kind of civilisation, intellectualcivilisation that we are abandoning... ...is a civilisationthat we could call romantic. with all the experience and depth,the effort we put into learning things. we never moved awayfrom that kind of approach. i don't think anything happened... ...between 1850 to 2000,from a cultural point of view. as far as intelligence is concerned... ...we were completely stuckin that mind-set.
the real turning point took placefifteen years ago. 300 years from now, people will bestudying the romantic period... ...and the end of the romantic period.that's where we're at now. and the new period,that will also be given a name. the new period will coincidewith the emergence of the digital world. the internet period. when i was little, it was an insultto call someone superficial. it meant you were simple. stupid. profoundness however,was held in high esteem.
one of the four, five things that thebarbarians have done, is turn that around. they have reinvented superficialityand given it a new meaning. saying you're standingon the earth's surface... ...and that your work surfs overthe surface is a compliment these days. if the sense of the worldis represented by shapes... ...that we draw by connecting dotson all four corners of the world... ...then being able to travel fastto connect those dots... ...is the most important thing. you will never be able to travel pastthose dots. you'd never finish.
because if we keep looking up,everything becomes huge. principles become somethingyou'd kill or die for. this new stage in human developmentis born out of the shocking things... ...we experiencedin the previous century. if you think about the horrorsof the 20th century... ...national socialism, stalinism,many dictatorships... that would have been impossiblewith a superficial humanity. it could only happen in a worldwhere values are pillars... ...that reach into the centreof the earth. the truth.
in an ever-changing world,hitler would be ridiculous. some years ago, i did researchinto the workings of financial markets. i found it interesting that we have veryabstract ideas about financial markets. complex, virtual.i delved deeper into the subject. it makes use of our communication systemand internet cables. those spots are perfectly traceable. this is a map of the worldmarking all cable landing points. this is rotax.it's on the map because it's planned. it's not there yet, but i marked itbecause i wanted to go there.
i wanted to visit the siteand see if anything was happening yet... ...or whether i could spot any activity. when i got there,i saw a dilapidated village. actually, this is one of the few placesin the world without cables. because of global warmingthe arctic ice is slowly melting... ...making it possibleto lay a submarine cable... ...that connects tokyo's and london'sfinancial markets. so the melting ice allows for new routesfor faster data communication... ...for financial markets.so less ice leads to more money.
i find that moment interesting... ...where we have to actively participate,ask questions and imagine things... ...instead of having everythingdone for us like the media do. we are surrounded by phenomenaand objects that are so huge... ...they transcend our perception. we never see it, come across it,we have no control over it... ...but we are constantlyconnected to it... ...and its effects are noticeablein many different ways. do you careif people call it art or research?
no. i mean, what i find interesting... ...is that the work can end upin many different contexts. it can start off a debate between peoplefrom different disciplines. that's what matters most to me.it's what these topics require. there is no wind right now. what do you do for a living? i'm a driver.- i'm a lift operator. i work in the nickel mines. i'm from nikel.i teach piano at music school.
i live in zapolyarnybut i was born in nikel. what do you do for a living?- i'm a computer specialist. what do you think of this project?- they are mostly interested... in sounds of nature.- sounds of nature, yes. and how the air moves.they have sticks that make sounds. like wind turbine blades. i think it's something from way back,when the sami lived here. it's a typical sami sound. back then,people were a lot closer to nature.
only fifteen years ago,we had completely different winds here. today, there is very little wind,but normally there's a lot. because of human intervention in nature,the wind direction has changed. i believe that fifty years from now,all expressions of art... the process has already started. it's fantastic.who knows what they will be creating? but if i had to identify master piecesof barbarian culture today... well, there aren't any yet. many things come close,they are precursors.
but we still have to wait a whilefor radical change. one the biggest problems, maybethe biggest one, is economic inequality. today's art world deals witheconomic inequality by making films... ...drawings or projects whichtemporarily eliminate that inequality... ...and show it off in fancy art galleriesin london or venice. and that simply isn't good enough... ...because ultimately critical art leadsto economic growth... ...in london, venice and new york. this is a former unilever plantation,their first one ever.
established in 1911,it's called leverville, in congo. they confiscated this whole areawhere many natural palm trees grew. free trade was bannedand all the palm oil that grew here... ...was shipped to liverpoolfor the production of sunlight soap. this was the corner stoneof unilever's future business empire. i had artist friends in kinshasa who gottogether with people who worked here. their job is to climb palm treesand pick the nuts. they earn some money, but all proceedsgo to the former unilever factory. i wanted to set up an arts centre,so we had to work with artists.
these are no official artists, they areplantation workers. but after a while... it's not that difficult, so they startedto make paintings and sculptures. friends of the plantation workersmake clay sculptures... ...which are scanned in 3dand converted into digital files. the clay sculptures are then reproduced... ...in cocoa from these plantationsthat ends up in the port of amsterdam. by selling these figures, they miraculouslystart making a lot more money. that seems to be a handy solutionto this problem of inequality. we don't just want to improve local lives.
we want to create a deeper awarenessof how art can relate to this inequality. not just something nice, cuteand egalitarian for the stage... ...but how it's organised financially,economically and structurally. to engage with that head on. this costume is based on printing plates. the printing plates contain coltan. coltan is used in phones, computers,camera's, plasma-tv's. coltan leads to wars in africa. cocoa is a plant that is usedfor the production of chocolate.
the cocoa comes from congo. how many kilos of cocoa do you sell?- 550 kilos. we are not politicians,we are artists. an artist always wantsto understand reality. this is europeand this is the whole of africa. these lines show europe's abundanceat africa's expense. they are the gateways into africa. there it's full with stuff, toys,buildings, houses. completely full.
here you see an exhaustedplantation worker who fell from a tree. this is a wonderful opportunityfor me to express myself. we don't get too many of thosebecause we live in such a remote area. as far as communication and transportare concerned, we are too far away. there is no electricity here.we really live in an underdeveloped area. expressing myself through sculpturesand reaching a large audience... ...has been a very interesting wayof denouncing that inequality. inequality that also occursin other parts of the world. at the same time i draw attentionto what's happening...
...among the most vulnerable peoplein globalisation. artist renzo sells our art... ...and then comes back to us,his fellow artists. also, our sculptures aren't about him. certain sculptures, like mine,refer to my grandfather's past. how my grandfather managed to surviveeverything that had happened in lusanga. so although we collaborate with him... ...we also put something of ourselvesin our art. he's like our colleague.
we are setting up a full-blown researchcentre. not to provoke... ...but to look into the relationshipbetween art and economic inequality. we work with the congolese plantationworkers art league... ...and rotterdam architects oma who areexperts at building museum spaces... ...as well as buildings that attractcapital, and that's what it's all about. it boosts the economy,and this place definitely needs a boost. i think it's about to happen. these houses were once built by unilever.they're on the verge of collapse. people don't get pensions,so they can't fix them.
oma drew up a plan. this gentleman here, mr kawata,has to move out. we want to renovate his house so he canturn it into a b&b and make some money. he'll live here, temporarily,so he can rent this one out... ...and commute back and forth.or he stays there, whatever. in any case, he has to move out nowso we can do up his house. the work is really necessary. there are so many holes,this house is going to collapse. this is a map of the camp.
that's the river, that's the chief's houseand this is your house. we are going to build something here.that will take a month or two. as soon as this is done up,you can move back. if that's what he says... what's it like to tell these peoplethey have to move out? not very nice, but we have toin order to attract capital. that's how the world works. that's what the production of critical artproduces in venice, london and new york. the poor have to piss off.
i will also give you some moneyto move out and move back in. to enjoy a nice dinner with your kids. thank you, papa kawata. you have already done a lotfor the development of the netherlands. or for unilever at least. i have worked very hardfor unilever my entire life. most of the friends i worked with,died on the job. i meet with a lot of resistance.people call me a fascist and a neo-colonial. so be it. i can't help that.
i am a white artist, 42 years old, male. i live in a worldwhere people like me call the shots. we have bought the villageincluding the houses. we have a planthat is going to attract a lot of capital. i am trying to create a spotwhere the associated violence... ...the huge inequality because of peoplelike me who call the shots... ...can be fully exposed. it's visible.i walk around in my black suit. i want to make it so obvious that we canturn the hierarchy upside down in one go. i want it to become a fundamental project.to name it, so we can address it.
overturning those hierarchiesso they become something else. this is your house. that's the residential zone. and this is the zonefor artistic expression. according to oma, this will becomethe production... no, the experience. this is living and this is experience. so the house where he has lived forsuch a long time, is in the wrong zone. it has to become something else,so he has to move. that's gentrification. if your house in berlin or london houseis situated in the critical art zone...
...that is attracting money, you haveto move. so that's what we do too. the difference being that mr ibekois part of the analysis team... ...of the research project. i don't know of any other placeon earth... ...where mr ibeko would be asked to sharehis views on gentrification. but he still has to move?- yes. he's going to live here. we'll build him another house here,with lights and a toilet. but he does have to leavethe designated zone for artistic critique. he has to move to the living zone,according to this plan.
we somehow have to reproduce thestatus quo otherwise we can't analyse it. and reproduce it in such a waythat it attracts money... ...so we can offer him a beautiful housewith electricity and a working toilet. which is more than palm oilever did for him. let's hope he gets more outof producing artistic critique. this is blue band, a unilever product... ...produced under license by marsavco.- can you open it? it's margarine.- yes. so even though the plantation hasbeen sold, the relationship continues...
...because the work the people doon the plantation, creates this product. and part of the license goesto unilever head office in rotterdam. part of the proceeds of this blue bandgoes to unilever. is that a question or a statement?- it's produced under licence. the owner of the brand gets the profit.that's a business principle. it's not just the factthat unilever adopts a green image. what's more important to me... ...is that for twelve consecutive yearsat tate modern in london... ...unilever sponsoredone of the most public art events.
each year, the turbine hallhosted yet another spectacle... ...where art could show its importanceto the public. including politically critical worksby ai weiwei... ...or works about changinglabour conditions by tino seghal. fantastic works, sponsored by unileverand its poor plantation workers. so yes... to me, that is horrendous inequality. first and foremost. but it's also a complete failureof what art can do.
the one thing an artwork can do,is understanding its role in the world. visual arts is the only knowledge domainin which objects can self-reflect. a car has to drive,shampoo has to wash your hair... ...but an artwork has tofirst and foremost reflect on itself.
if fantastic works of artare on display at tate modern... ...the largest art museum in the world,courtesy of unilever... ...and those works are unaware they'repaid for by shocking and abject poverty... ...it's simply bad art.
