Democratic Promenade, the art exhibition at the Bluecoat Gallery, features 40 artists engaging with ideas around democracy and the radical through artwork, objects, reconstructions, films, photography and documentation. The theme Democratic Promenade is prompted by events 100 years ago that had a profound cultural, architectural and political impact.
The title Democratic Promenade is taken from Walter Dixon Scott’s description of the Landing Stage in his 1907 book Liverpool.
The term “Democracy” is described on the online Oxford Dictionary as “a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives: a system of parliamentary democracy. The practice or principles of social equality: demands for greater democracy.
Fareed Zakaria asks, “Democracy is arguably the greatest political buzzword of our time and is invoked by everyone – but what does it mean? Can it be defined, measured, safeguarded? Can it be sold, bought, and transplanted? Can it grow? Can it die? What does it mean to people who can’t even talk about it? What does it mean to people who don’t believe in it? What does it mean to you?”
Jonathan Jones states in his article ‘The best art is born from democracy’ that “Some say dictatorships spur dissident artists to be truly adventurous, but the strongest art comes from freedom – as our upcoming general election reminds us”
Jones’ article is quite short, but he received a lot of responses and comments. For me, however, Jones was not able to elucidate the real meaning of democracy.
Berlin based artist Oliver Walker and his art installation Mr Democracy at the Bluecoat Democratic Promenade exhibition features 1000 plastic dolls imported from China, all programmed to recite a written constitution for the UK. It is a response to the fact that the UK does not have a written constitution. Mr Democracy is an international solo project exploring trade, democracy and globalisation. Walker’s Mr Democracy project from 2008 was installed at the Royal Standard Liverpool. As stated on Oliver Walker’s website, “The UK is one of only three countries in the world not to have a written constitution”
In Francesca’s Klug’s article in The Guardian, titled Political impasse proves need for a written constitution (11 May 2010), she states that "We need a constitution. You cannot run a country without having a constitution, without basic laws. It's a must." So said Saif al-Islam al-Gaddafi, the Libyan leader's LSE-educated son, speaking to the Jordan Times last week.”
I read Klug’s article on the day of Gadaffi’s death, when every newspaper’s headline and every TV channel was showing horrible and shocking images of the dictator Gaddafi being dragged from his hiding place. Libya does have a constitution, but can Libya be described as a democratic country? Either way, this leads me to question what democracy is? Justice and freedom? Is justice found in the courts?
Recent events in Libya can hardly be described as examples of justice and democracy. At the very least, Gaddafi should have been made to stand trial before the Justice verdict was made. Libyan people behaved like savages and barbarians. Is this how the new Libya will conduct itself? Is the western media going to continue to show all those horrible images 24/7? Have people always stood for law and order? Libya and other countries have a written constitution but does that make them a better place to live? The old Soviet Union had a written constitution, but it was never obeyed. Constitutions are fictions. Each generation makes its own political settlement and fights for the rights and balances that it thinks are important.
“If we learn anything from history, it is that we learn nothing from history.” (Psalm 78:12-39)
This seems to be a cliché. It has been repeated so often.
Similarly George Santayana argues that “History is a pack of lies about events that never happened told by people who weren’t there."
What, then, is the role of the arts in promoting a democratic culture? The book The Arts of Democracy book attempts to answer this question in a dozen essays on subjects relating to “the competing claims of "the public" and the free expression of individuals and communities”
Does the Democratic Promenade exhibition clarify what the ‘democracy’ means? In my opinion, it does not.
For me, the real interest or shock came not from any one image or performance in the Democratic Promenade exhibition. Rather, the show’s unsettling message lies in the accumulated encounters from 100 years of Liverpool’ history. The exhibition in general did not shake or shock my imagination, nor did it explain what democracy means and how all these art work represent democracy. Perhaps after few years art historians and the media will represent the latest Liverpool riots and occupy everything movement as an important democratic revolt in society. Having seen the riots first hand on my street in Toxteth, I do not think that it was a democratic movement or important democratic revolt, but merely a barbarian looting. In conclusion, for me, “democracy” is like “happiness”, in that everybody dreams about it in their own way and nobody knows exactly what it means.
