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As part of a move to integrate culture into
the language course programme, and further develop a good relationship
with my class of advanced young adult learners, I decided to suggest
an outing to the Gilbert
and George art exhibition. Here is an account of what
we did.
Before the visit
My Saturday afternoon group of advanced young adult learners
were interested in going to see the Gilbert and George exhibition
being held at the Centro Cultural de Belém from 11th January
to 14th April 2002. The group are generally very keen and motivated
and, with this exhibition on their doorstep, it was a great opportunity
for them to learn something about contemporary British art.
I searched for some information about the artists on the Internet
and then looked at what I found with the group. It sounded a bit
strange as the artists use microscopic images of bodily fluids
such as urine, faecal matter and sperm samples that they photograph
and blow up to create their renowned multipanels or sculptures
which form the basis of their work. However, the artists are extremely
well known contemporary artists in Britain and this was a high
profile exhibition, supported by the British Council.
We set a date for the trip so that instead of our normal 3-hour
classroom based lesson on a Saturday afternoon we would go to
Belém. In order to prepare for the students' visit, I went
along to the exhibition myself the week before. As well as the
main works mentioned above, there was four hours of video footage
from various sources such as The South Bank Show and other documentaries
made about the lives of these famous artists. I therefore planned
to create a worksheet of questions based on their lives and this
exhibition.
Before my visit to the exhibition I must admit I didn't know
much about the artists, only that their work was known to be provocative
and shocking. After my visit I could only agree. Not all of the
exhibition can be described in this way; some aspects are just
colourful, urban scenes depicting youth, fear, social vices and
so on. There are many images of naked Gilbert and George at every
turn, not shocking perhaps but not particularly aesthetically
pleasing. But the vulgarity was overloaded - I began to feel uncomfortable
about taking my students, particularly the younger 15 year olds
to this event.
I went back to my group the following week and told them my opinion
of the exhibition and voiced my concerns about taking them. However,
the group decided (unanimously) that they would like to see it
for themselves.
The visit
So, the following Saturday, a beautiful sunny February afternoon,
we visited the exhibition. There were seven students (including
one male). Their reactions were pretty similar to mine. I knew
they wouldn't understand some of the vocabulary printed on the
panels (words generally considered taboo, in polite company) -
so you get the picture, it was up to me to enlighten them! This
group are usually fun to be with and full of smiles, but I have
to say I've never seen so many grimacing faces in front of me
before. The best comment of the day came from an extremely bright
fifteen-year-old who said "Gilbert and George are just obsessed
with big brown things".
The students didn't like the exhibition and overall felt it
presented a poor image of British art. For my part, although I'd
anticipated questions about the artists and the unusual vocabulary,
I still felt rather uncomfortable. Although I'd given them prior
warning about the content of the exhibition, I felt responsible
for making them aware of some seedier aspects of life in the UK
and questioned whether integrating this kind of culture into my
teaching was what I should be doing.
However, it was an interesting, thought provoking and ultimately
very productive afternoon. The students completed the questionnaire
I'd given them and obviously talked a lot, in English, about what
they saw. It certainly made them think and they learnt something
about contemporary British art (or one representation of it).
We all got to know each other a bit better and we were in a
beautiful setting in the warm sunshine, lucky for us because the
exhibition didn't offer any beauty or much positivity.
Follow up
As a follow up, the students split into two groups to work on
two writing tasks: one was to put together a review of the exhibition
and the other, a letter to the director of the British Council
asking why it chose to support art of this type.
They worked on these two tasks by brainstorming ideas together,
then producing a first draft at home which was edited and improved
upon in subsequent lessons. Producing their work on the computer
enabled me to add comments to help them edit their work.
The students (and the teacher) may not have liked the art, but
the experience and the work that came out of the visit was extremely
valuable. They were all fully engaged in doing these writing tasks
since the work was based on their own experience and something
they had very clear opinions about - and that means they were
truly communicative tasks.
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The students´ review
Gilbert and George are two British contemporary artists
and performers. They recently brought an exhibition to Lisbon's
Cultural Centre in Belém.
They use different tools such as photography and painting,
with very contrasting and strong colours, causing an impact
which might be seen as grotesque. These two performers have
a great desire to gain attention, so they try to shock as
much as they can.
The main subject of their artwork is homosexuality and how
the heterosexual society views and accepts this difference
or not. In fact, they expose their own sex lives and options,
tending to centralise their own images without any kind
of reservation. This duo likes to give their sculptures
a strange look, using the human body and its components
to represent their ideas.
If one goes to one of Gilbert and George's exhibitions
without knowing what their kind of "Art" is, one
might easily get shocked, especially as their work is not
known in Portugal.
As far as the true definition of "Art" is concerned,
it is nothing resembling what Gilbert and George do. Their
work is most probably a result of the esthetical crisis.
Nowadays everything is labelled as "Art", and
so the word ends up losing its meaning.
(After all, the easiest way to destroy a concept is by
making it vulgar or extending it). Contemporary art is said
to have wonderful qualities, deserving respect; however
everything associated with it can be considered crazy.
The public in general sees art as a game for snobbish intellectuals
and they can't understand how vital art is. It's difficult
to see art separated from reality. The new artists try to
gain attention with originality or by shocking the viewers.
Maybe they'd rather not be recognised by their talent but
by interesting perspectives; this is what happens with Gilbert
and George.
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The students' letter
2nd March 2002
Dear Mr.Ness,
As students of the British Council, we are writing to give
our opinions about the "Gilbert and George" art
exhibition that we went to see on Saturday 23rd February
2002 at the Centro Cultural de Belém. We were interested
in finding out more about British art and culture but we
left feeling very disappointed
Firstly, we think it is a shame that the British Council
promoted an event full of foul language and vulgarity. Our
teacher had to explain some unusual vocabulary to us, which
we did not feel was very educational or productive. Secondly
"Gilbert and George" are nothing set against the
wider range of British art that could be promoted in Portugal.
For example, we would like to see an event that could show
us something about the history of British art.
We feel that this sort of exhibition gives a bad image of
not only this Institution but also the United Kingdom. We
would like to know why the British Council is interested
in promoting this sort of art.
We look forward to hearing your comments. Thank you for
your attention.
Level 6 students, Parede
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The Director's reply
Dear Students
First of all, may I thank you for taking the time to write
your interesting review of the Gilbert and George exhibition
at the Centro Cultural de Belém and for your letter
to me of 2 March. I am really delighted that you took the
time to visit the exhibition, but obviously disappointed
that you felt so negative about it. Of course, that's not
such a bad thing either - we're all free to disagree about
these things!
Art, with a capital 'A', is a very difficult thing to define.
Or, rather, there are many different definitions. And whether
it's painting, sculpture, or poetry, art portrays an aspect
of the society in which we live, as seen by the author(s)
.
Gilbert and George, I think, set out to shock and to challenge
the viewer's perceptions - and they certainly succeeded
with you!
You ask why The British Council is 'promoting this sort
of art'. The Council never operates on its own, but always
with Portuguese partners, and in this particular case the
original idea for the Gilbert and George exhibition came
from the Portuguese team at the Centro Cultural de Belém.
They were keen to bring to Lisbon two artists (although
Gilbert and George might claim to be one artist!) whom many
people see as being amongst the most interesting, if controversial,
in the contemporary British art world.
The newspaper 'Público' also thought that this was
such an important event that they even carried a huge photograph
of the event, and of Gilbert and George, on their front
page on the day of the opening of the exhibition.
I understand why you might have found some of the themes
and the language objectionable. But I would ask you to think
again about the suggestion that the Gilbert and George exhibition
gives "a bad image of the Council and of the UK".
Our objective here is to help encourage partnerships and
mutual understanding between Britain and Portugal, and in
this case the Gilbert and George exhibition, while not being
to everyone's taste, has, I believe succeeded in contributing
to this objective.
Perhaps you will find the next exhibition in which we are
involved more interesting - and let me quickly point out
that you can still visit the 'Michael Craig-Martin' installation
at the Museum of Modern Art in Sintra, but hurry as it closes
at the end of this month.
But, more than anything, I would like to thank you for
taking the time to write to me and for expressing your views
so clearly.
Yours sincerely,
Robert Ness
Director
The British Council Portugal
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