Tate Modern urged to drop BP sponsorship deal
The Tate Modern is being urged to drop its BP sponsorship deal ahead of the Paris Climate Summit in December by art collective Liberate Tate, which has begun an unsanctioned performance in the gallery's Turbine Hall.
The performance, entitled Time Piece, began last night and will end at high tide on the Thames River today (14 June) at 12.55pm, as the collective looks to place pressure on Tate Modern to cut its ties with the oil company.
As part of the performance each of the 75 performers smuggled in a book to create a library of selected texts including the 2014 Climate Report.
Yasmin De Silva of Liberate Tate said that oil companies like BP are trying to "carry on pretending its business as usual" and added that time is "running out" to act on climate change.
"We’re already seeing the impact of climate change globally, and companies, foundations and institutions around the world are turning away from the fossil fuel industry that’s driving us to climate disaster," she said.
"We’re here today to let Tate know the tide is rising against its continued support for BP, which has a shocking history of environmental disasters, human rights abuses and lobbying against climate change legislation.”
In March, Tate Modern was forced to reveal that the amount of sponsorship money it received from BP was an average of £224,000 a year between 1990 and 2006, 40 times less than it received from Tate Members last year. At the most recent Tate Members AGM Tate members called for Tate to drop BP.