[mobglob-discuss] Billionaires for the Olympics shuts down Celebration 2010 event

[Bella]

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

"Billionaires for the Olympics", a group of artists critical of culture's 
role in the Olympics, successfully closed down the opening parade of 
Celebration 2010 on Granville Island, last Friday, February 14th. Instead,

the Billionaires had their own parade, walking alongside their limo and 
handing out leaflets outlining the ways in which the Olympics will impact 
negatively upon artists and ordinary citizens. Shoppers on the 
usually-staid 
island did a double-take as this group of artists and art educators walked

by dressed in furs , wigs and tuxedos, holding signs saying "Luge not 
Legal 
Aid", and, "Let Them Eat Snow!". Some students , staff and faculty from 
the 
Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design joined inwhile others hoisted their

own anti-Olympics banner from a balcony.

Says UBC Ph.D. candidate Marusya Bociurkiw, who has been studying the 
representations that the Olympics produce, "these kinds of performances 
are 
crucial in creating a rupture in the Olympic's seamless and monolithic 
presentation. While the Olympics historically produce images that 
reinforce 
patriotism and a very limited idea of nationhood, culture-jamming 
strategies 
provide space for a much more diverse and nuanced public debate."

The Billionaires will be showing up at various pro-Olympic and 
anti-Olympics 
events in the coming weeks. The Westender describes the "Billionaires for 
the Olympics" as a "group with a serious artistic bent and unbridled 
imagination....Their message: the lunacy of government cuts in gaming 
funding for arts groups - not to mention healthcare and education - in the

face of millions planned for express routes to the airport and Whistler"

For further information, write to: fridakahlo02 at hotmail.com





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