london
This confetti was part of the celebrations held by the art collective Liberate Tate, following the announcement that BP would be ending its sponsorship of Tate.
Liberate Tate is a member of the Art Not Oil coalition, which challenges fossil fuel sponsorship of arts and culture. They have performed artistic interventions in the Tate galleries for six years, culminating in a victory celebration in the Tate Modern in March 2016.
BP’s sponsorship of institutions like Tate and the British Museum is a core part of preserving their ‘social licence to operate’. It provides a veneer of respectability which masks their human rights abuses and environmental destruction.
The work of groups like Liberate Tate undermines this social licence, and exposes BP’s damaging and destructive practices.
This confetti is evidence that we can successfully challenge BP’s sponsorship of the arts, and overturn the corporate takeover of culture.
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