I worry that there is a conflation of two issues here, that could lead to this project being perceived as anti-semitic and, worse, actually engendering anti-semitism, rather than political opposition to the state of Israel and its barbaric behaviour. The first is the issue of support for the Palestinians and the other the corporate sponsorship of art. I'm all for ,for example, campaigns for dis-investment or for a boycott of Israeli goods or for the cultural boycott of Israeli *institutions*; campaigns that target political Zionism, not Jewish individuals. Likewise I'm all for campaigning against the BBC and the British media in general's abject capitulation to Israel. On the second issue also it seems to me that there's a lot to be said for all sorts of comment and campaigns against the corporate presence in art ( and indeed in academia and pretty much everywhere) But to target a *particular* Jewish individual , with a *particularly* Jewish name, to link this in with the possible implication there is a *particular* connection between Jewishness, suuport for the state of Israel and the corporate presence in art seem to me to risk ( unintentionally I hope) reviving the worst kind of anti-semitic propaganda. At a time when political Zionism is doing its very best to muddy the waters between what constitutes opposition to Zionism and anti-semitism, so as to smear those who opposed the Gaza massacre and those who stand solidarity with the Palestinians this is, to put it at its very best, playing a dangerous game. michael
--- On Mon, 2/16/09, Ruth Catlow <[email protected]> wrote: From: Ruth Catlow <[email protected]> Subject: [NetBehaviour] [Fwd: BOYCOTT BLOOMBERG - CALL FOR CONTRIBUTIONS] To: "NetBehaviour for networked distributed creativity" <[email protected]> Date: Monday, February 16, 2009, 2:20 PM WE ARE LOOKING FOR ARTISTS & WRITERS TO CONTRIBUTE TO A 'FREE SCHOOL' MAGAZINE WORK SHOULD RELATE TO THE RECENT ATTACKS IN GAZA, THE OCCUPATION OF PALESTINE, MEDIA BIAS, THE CORPORATE SPONSORSHIP OF ART, BLOOMBERG, ART AS A SPECULATIVE COMMODITY, ART & PROTEST, AND OTHER ASSOCIATED OR RELEVANT SUBJECTS. THE MAGAZINE WILL BE LAUNCHED ON 6 MARCH OUTSIDE ARTFUTURES AT BLOOMBERG SPACE. CONTRIBUTIONS SHOULD BE B&W TO FIT A4 SIZE, AND SENT TO THE FOLLOWING EMAIL ADDRESS: [email protected] DEADLINE 1 MARCH. PLEASE FORWARD THIS ON TO ANYONE WHO MAY BE INTERESTED Thanks, Free School. 'Boycott Bloomberg' artwork by Andrew Cooper & Dean Kenning _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour _______________________________________________ NetBehaviour mailing list [email protected] http://www.netbehaviour.org/mailman/listinfo/netbehaviour
