{"id":551,"date":"2014-03-05T23:14:05","date_gmt":"2014-03-05T12:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/?p=551"},"modified":"2014-03-05T23:14:05","modified_gmt":"2014-03-05T12:14:05","slug":"reconciling-values","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/reconciling-values\/","title":{"rendered":"Reconciling Values"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently I posted these brief thoughts on the issue of Transfield’s sponsorship of the Sydney Biennale, over at the Open Engagement blog: http:\/\/openengagement.info\/home\/archives\/5200<\/a>. The blog post is part of a series that OE is hosting, where 100 questions are posed, broadly addressing ethics and aesthetics around socially engaged art practice. The series is co-ordinated by Gemma Rose Turnbull, Ariana Jacob, and Jen Delos Reyes.<\/em>
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\nHow do you reconcile values that are different between you, your collaborators and the work\u2019s public or audience?<\/strong><\/p>\n

This question doesn\u2019t mean much without an example. Here\u2019s one.<\/p>\n

Right now in Australia, a whole bunch of people are putting their heads together anxiously, and asking exactly this question about the Sydney Biennale.<\/p>\n

Recently it came to light that the Biennale\u2019s major corporate sponsor, Transfield, has taken a contract to provide services to Australia\u2019s offshore immigration detention centres.<\/p>\n

Background info: for several years now, the Australian government\u2019s \u201casylum seeker\u201d policy has hinged on an ingenious legal sleight of hand. Refugees on leaky boats are intercepted by the navy and taken to makeshift detention centres on remote islands. Since these islands are not on the Australian mainland, it is much easier to deny their claims for refugee status and refuse them asylum in our country. People can languish in misery for months and years in these ad-hoc prisons.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t take much imagination to follow the flow. Money paid by the government to Transfield for running detention centres filters through to the philanthropic Transfield Foundation, making its way into the hands of the Sydney Biennale, helping to generate one of our largest cultural festivals.<\/p>\n

Intense discussion is underway. Should the artists who are due to exhibit at the Biennale next month withdraw their participation? Should educators refuse to bring their students on excursions to see the exhibition? Can the Biennale be convinced to cut ties with Transfield? What course of action would be most strategic?<\/p>\n

Some of the artists I\u2019ve spoken to \u2013 who identify as being practitioners of \u201csocially engaged art\u201d \u2013 are torn. They\u2019ve been working on their projects for months, sometimes years, leading up to this event. Many are working with multiple stakeholders or in communities where considerable momentum has built. To put it mildly, boycotting the Biennale means stuffing a lot of people around.<\/p>\n

Also \u2013 it goes without saying, an invitation to exhibit the Biennale is a significant career opportunity.<\/p>\n

And for educators, a field trip to the Biennale can keep students\u2019 heads spinning for months afterwards. It\u2019s an incredibly valuable pedagogical experience.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a familiar tension here: the \u201cgood\u201d that a first world product generates versus the third world \u201cbad\u201d that lies beneath it. Chocolate, coffee, i-phone manufacturing, etc etc. The art world lives in an insulated bubble, taking care to say the right things, but rarely having to weigh up different values in a way that impacts our own lives.<\/p>\n

How much of our careers and lifestyles would we be prepared to sacrifice for a clear improvement in social justice?<\/p>\n

What\u2019s the point of socially engaged art if it\u2019s propped up by socially disengaged money?<\/p>\n

Will taking a stand even make a difference?<\/p>\n

In the end, the Transfield-Biennale connection is incidental. The key thing is that immigration detention centres actually do exist \u2013 and have existed for a long time \u2013 punishing people for fleeing awful circumstances. The fact that the artworld is feeling protracted angst over this matter is a gift \u2013 a rare opportunity to feel a small fraction of what it must be like for a refugee family to weigh up staying versus leaving.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the beginning of a reconciliation of different values.<\/p>\n

\"transfield<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently I posted these brief thoughts on the issue of Transfield’s sponsorship of the Sydney Biennale, over at the Open Engagement blog: http:\/\/openengagement.info\/home\/archives\/5200. The blog post is part of a series that OE is hosting, where 100 questions are posed, broadly addressing ethics and aesthetics around socially engaged art practice. The series is co-ordinated by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[293],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-551","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-workplace-relations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=551"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":552,"href":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/551\/revisions\/552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=551"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=551"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lucazoid.com\/bilateral\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=551"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}