5 leading artists have their say on Europe

This weekend, from 23 to 26 May, Europeans will take to the ballot box to have their say on the future of Europe. Since Brexit and far right parties have swept across the continent, the status of the European Union has never been more precarious since its founding in 1957 (as the European Economic Community). Deciding who will be power in the European Parliament for the next five years, this year’s election has been an impassioned fight of wills and beliefs, with many seeing this as a important opportunity to stand up for the attributes of strength and unity at the heart of the EU. This is exactly what’s on the mind of the 30 artists who are participating in United Artists for Europe — an exhibition at London’s Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac running this week, from 21 to 23 May.  Based on an idea by French intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy, the exhibition, which will be accompanied by an auction of the works in early June, is intended to platform artists’ commitment to the ideals and values of Europe. The participating artists signed a manifesto written up by Lévy as a pledge to support an undivided Europe. 

Featuring big names such as Grayson Perry, Marina Abramović, Juergen Teller, Elmgreen & Dragset, Marlene Dumas and Daniel Buren, alongside up and coming talents like Claire Adelfang and Jean-Marie Appriou, the exhibition taps into the influence artists have on public opinion. As the exhibition’s curators, Tancrede Hertzog and Leopold Legros, explain, “Their legitimacy is even greater than those of the intellectuals, whom we see and hear everywhere, who have lost their aura. Artists have no political interests: their voices are new, authentic.” Here, a selection of the exhibiting artists including Perry, Abramović and Elmgreen & Dragset, voice their concerns and beliefs about what Europe means to them as the election loom ever-closer.  

Grayson Perry

“A few weeks ago, I was out cycling in the countryside and I passed two women riding horses. One of the women was wearing a cover on her riding helmet that was blue with yellow stars on it. I thought it unusual to see a blatant ‘remain’ supporter out there in Brexitshire. “I like your hat”, I said, supportively, as I passed. “I didn’t know what it meant when I bought it!” she said. I replied “I think you have summed up the whole referendum!”

I tell this story not to mock the ignorance of the leave voter but because whether or not to stay in the European Union has become the over-simplistic divide between two distinct ideologies, two belief-systems with little to do with the political, administrative, legal, entity that is the EU. I don’t think the remain camp were necessarily any more aware of, or articulate about their reasons for wanting to stay a part of the EU. I think that the remain voters, in many respects, lived in more of a bubble than the leavers – they are the educated professionals; they think they know best.

The feelings the referendum brought up were an inchoate bundle of attitudes wrought from personal experience of education, social class, geography, globalisation and race. All across Europe we see different versions of this emotional conflict. Often, I think it is the well-educated, left-leaning progressives who have the biggest blind spot.

I always thought it was part of our job as artists to escape the orthodoxies of society. Perhaps now is a good time for artists to think “Who is it that I am making art for?” Are we to continue preaching to the converted, virtue signalling to the smug home crowd? Maybe we should start acting truly radically and empathise with and reach out to the great mass of Europeans who don’t read literary fiction, or go to art galleries or theatres. In short, those people who have felt let down by the well-meaning but ultimately self-serving educated, professional class.

I never did find out if the woman on the horse was a ‘leave’ or ‘remain’ voter or whether she had heard Beethoven’s Ode to Joy or had seen Van Gogh’s Starry Night, but maybe I should make my next artwork for her.”

Marina Abramović

“I am a nomadic artist. Travel and the exploration of new places has always been essential to making art and to my way of life.  Europe was my first destination, and it represented a type of freedom which was entirely new to me coming from Ex-Yugoslavia. The memories I have of living in Amsterdam with Ulay and traveling the continent in our old Citroën police van are what drives my passion to help support the European ideals of today.”

Shezad Dawood

“Given the level of criticism directed at the European project by right-wing, nationalist and populist media and spokespeople, it is important to realise that while not perfect it is the best system going. I feel it is important through critical engagement with the European project to support and deepen Europe’s commitments to freedom of movement, clamping down on tax evasion, to workers’ rights and environmental protections, and to international human rights. And to open up and expand our definition of what European humanist principles could mean in the 21st century, with regards to race, gender, nature and the non-human…

It really is a question of how do we improve things, rather than race to the bottom in a global dash towards greater wealth inequality, and the erosion of workers’ and environmental rights that have taken centuries to be recognised? Which is after all the not so secret intent of most right-wing and regressive parties, autocrats and dictators the world over.”

Elmgreen & Dragset

“We decided to support United Artists for Europe because we believe in the collaborative spirit. Only a united Europe will be able to solve the problems that concern all citizens on our continent and protect the democratic and human rights values that have been obtained in our part of the world after WWII.”

Claire Adelfang

“Europe is the possibility of access to cultures, which are both similar and different so to put in place a shared cultural patrimony. To participate to the event United Artists for Europe is an example of this and I was reminded immediately of the photographic series I made at the Palace of Versailles, particularly in the location of the Hameau de la Reine. Among this series, I chose a photograph which was taken during the restoration of this location, titled Le Hameau de la Reine – Observatoire. Throughout history and time, the Palace of Versailles has remained one of the most emblematic locations of Europe.”

United Artists for Europe runs from 21-23 May at Galerie Thaddaeus Ropac.