‘Also Sprach Zarathustra’ reworded by 150-strong ensemble in the Great Court
('ASZ ' IS WORDLESS)
REAL MEDIA
December 2, 2024
Around 150 people from choirs all around the country came to the British Museum in London on Saturday afternoon to deliver a musical message demanding the end to BP sponsorship.
In the Spring of last year, campaigners were hopeful that the British Museum had finally followed suit with the majority of other cultural institutions and broken its sponsorship ties with fossil fuel, and in particular BP. Although no new deal to directly sponsor exhibitions has been announced, at the end of the year came the news of a new 10-year arrangement, whereby BP provide £50 million funding for renovations.
Chris Garrard, for many years an activist with the BP-or-not-BP? protest group, and now working with research and lobbyists Culture Unstained said:
“The only way you can sign up to a new sponsorship deal with a planet-wrecking fossil fuel company in 2023 is by burying your head in the sand, pretending the climate crisis isn’t happening and ignoring the almost complete rejection of fossil fuel funding by the cultural sector in recent years.”
Among the songs the choir sang on Saturday was their reworded rendition of Also Sprach Zarathustra (as used in the film 2001 A Space Odyssey), hitting a rousing high G which echoed round the Great Court with the lyric ‘Time to drop BP now’.
Three masked actors represented BP CEO Murray Auchincloss, museum director Nicholas Cullinan, and the museum’s chairman and the ex-Chancellor George Osborne (who by amazing coincidence has close ties with BP). They stood under a banner which read “Human Culture from the Beginning to the End: The British Museum with British Petroleum”, while another ‘Drop BP’ banner was suspended from the higher gallery window behind them
December 2, 2024
Around 150 people from choirs all around the country came to the British Museum in London on Saturday afternoon to deliver a musical message demanding the end to BP sponsorship.
In the Spring of last year, campaigners were hopeful that the British Museum had finally followed suit with the majority of other cultural institutions and broken its sponsorship ties with fossil fuel, and in particular BP. Although no new deal to directly sponsor exhibitions has been announced, at the end of the year came the news of a new 10-year arrangement, whereby BP provide £50 million funding for renovations.
Chris Garrard, for many years an activist with the BP-or-not-BP? protest group, and now working with research and lobbyists Culture Unstained said:
“The only way you can sign up to a new sponsorship deal with a planet-wrecking fossil fuel company in 2023 is by burying your head in the sand, pretending the climate crisis isn’t happening and ignoring the almost complete rejection of fossil fuel funding by the cultural sector in recent years.”
Among the songs the choir sang on Saturday was their reworded rendition of Also Sprach Zarathustra (as used in the film 2001 A Space Odyssey), hitting a rousing high G which echoed round the Great Court with the lyric ‘Time to drop BP now’.
Three masked actors represented BP CEO Murray Auchincloss, museum director Nicholas Cullinan, and the museum’s chairman and the ex-Chancellor George Osborne (who by amazing coincidence has close ties with BP). They stood under a banner which read “Human Culture from the Beginning to the End: The British Museum with British Petroleum”, while another ‘Drop BP’ banner was suspended from the higher gallery window behind them
.
Photo courtesy of Andrea Domeniconi
The Climate Choir Movement has been steadily growing for two years and currently boasts nearly a thousand members. Earlier this year Real Media covered their protest inside the Houses of Parliament.
The Climate Choir Movement has been steadily growing for two years and currently boasts nearly a thousand members. Earlier this year Real Media covered their protest inside the Houses of Parliament.
No comments:
Post a Comment