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Interviewing Mahienour: revolution and climate change
Support Mahienour I spent several months earlier this year trying to interview my friend Mahienour El-Massry, a pivotal Egyptian revolutionary from Alexandria. She had been sentenced in absentia to 2 years in prison in January, but hadn’t been arrested yet. That didn’t mean she was safe – the police could have arrested her from her home…
22 Jul 2014 admin -
BP using crackdown to steamroll unpopular project in Egypt
BP is back in Cairo. The multinational never quite left, but intense community opposition put its flagship North Alexandra project on hold during the last three years. With former military leader Abdel Fattah El-Sisi firmly installed in the President’s chair, now BP has seen an opportunity to restart drilling and construction. CEO Bob Dudley was…
21 Jul 2014 admin -
July Newsletter – Guess which repressive regime is hosting the European Olympics?
Dear All, Join us for an alternative tour of the Tate, hear about our “oil money and theatre” discussions and watch Mika’s new documentary – Egypt’s Lost Power All that glitters – Azerbaijan and the Olympics Ever heard of the European Olympics? Neither had we until a few weeks ago when Emma Hughes was back in…
11 Jul 2014 admin -
Oil money and theatre – questions from the Green Room
Last night saw a wide variety of folks from the world of theatre come together to discuss the growing controversy of oil sponsorship of the arts. Many in theatre now recognise that climate change and environmental damage are pressing issues that need to be addressed, both in the very content of the work, and the…
10 Jul 2014 admin -
All that Glitters. Azerbaijan and the Olympics
Landing at Heydar Aliyev Airport in Baku I thought I knew what to expect. This was my second trip to Azerbaijan’s capital city, and I still had vivid memories of my first, the year before. Back then, I arrived at night and Baku seemed like one of the most opulent places on earth. The drive…
10 Jul 2014 admin -
Picture This – artist Raoul Martinez on why oil sponsorship must end
Over the past week we’ve published chapter by chapter the text from our new report ‘Picture This’ against BP’s sponsorship of the National Portrait Gallery’s Portrait Award. Below is the final chapter, ‘Picturing the Future’, brilliantly and calmly reasoned by artist Raoul Martinez. Raoul has been 3-times shortlisted for the BP Portrait Award and has…
3 Jul 2014 jane -
‘Picture This’ report extract – BP’s ongoing Gulf Coast disaster & ‘artful dodging’
Last week we published a critical new report ‘Picture This – A Portrait of 25 years of BP Sponsorship‘, timed with the opening of the National Portrait Gallery London’s new ‘BP Portrait Award’ exhibition. In a series of blogs, we are featuring extracts from the report. Today’s blog shares devastating testimony and analysis from two…
1 Jul 2014 jane -
Art Not Oil’s week of action on NPG’s ‘BP Portrait Award’
Have a look at the ‘Storify’ to see some of the actions, reactions and impacts that happened around the National Portrait Gallery’s opening of this year’s BP Portrait Award. The main events were… On Saturday – ‘Portraits in Oil‘ performance-intervention at the NPG by Art Not Oil Coalition On Wednesday (day of the exhibition’s press…
30 Jun 2014 jane -
‘Picture This’ extract – 25 years of BP Sponsorship, year by year
Today we focus on the section of our report that outlined BP’s track record 1989 – 2014, the period of BP’s sponsorship of the National Portrait Gallery’s Portrait Award. Here’s the whole report. We have pulled out 25 examples of BP’s worst environmental and human rights disasters and also evidence of dodgy and backroom deals…
27 Jun 2014 jane
