International

I'm surrounded by badgers. I've never actually seen one live, though I'm told my university campus is riddled with them. Our student newspaper is called the Badger (I think he's called Ronald). I have several badger badges and a couple of badger toys friends have given me to laugh at my interest in the cull. I'm forever spotting brightly coloured badger-themed street art around my home in Brighton. I have piles of books on the things.

 Me asombre cuando vi que el Reverendo Billy había sido programado para presentar su espectáculo de “Earthalujah” (alaba la Tierra) como parte de la serie de Centro Hemisférico y FOMMA: “Diálogos Hemisféricos” en San Cristóbal de las Casas esta semana. Tuve que volver a mirar y decirme, El Reverendo Billy?

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I looked twice when I saw that Reverend Billy was scheduled to perform his “Earthalujah” show as part of the Centro Hemisférico and FOMMA’s series “Diálogos Hemisféricos” in San Cristóbal de las Casas this week. Then I looked again.

On July 5, 2011, I received word from Reverend Billy and & The Church of Earthalujah that he was taking his flock to London in order to “lay hands on the Tate Modern, and cast out the evil demon of BP’s oil sponsorship.” The good Reverend had been invited to the U.K. by activists groups Liberate Tate, UK Tar Sands Network, Rising Tide, Art Not Oil and Climate Rush, and he was scheduled to exorcise the Tate Modern on July 18th.

On July 16, BP announced yet another pipeline leak at its Lisburne oilfield on Alaska’s North Slope.

 A couple of days ago, on Monday 18 July, 5.30pm on the dot, a man in a white suit, dog collar and spectacular hair falls to his knees in the Turbine Hall of the world’s most visited modern art gallery, London’s Tate Modern, and begins to testify. His voice echoes throughout the huge hall, climbing up to the stunned ears of hundreds of tourists and art lovers who pause on the walkways to look down to see what the hell is going on.

 AN American performance group, British artists, activists and art lovers are planning to exorcise the demons of a London gallery's relationship with a major oil company.

It's 5.30pm on Monday, and as the crowds in the massive turbine hall at the Tate Modern thin out, a neat young man with slicked back hair quietly disrobes, revealing a white suit. Eight others approach him, donning green costumes.

 The Reverend Billy & the Church of Earthalujah preached a sermon loud and clear in the Turbine Hall of Tate Modern today, urging and end to extraction of oil for the Tar Sands and of arts sponsorship by BP which gives a company engaged in this most polluting activity a false green image. London, UK. 18/07/2011

 Reverend Billy leads mass exorcism in Tate Modern Turbine Hall over ‘taint’ of BP sponsorship

American performance group and British artists, activists and art lovers congregate in call for gallery to end its relationship with oil company