Chevron Punked With 'Yes Men'-Produced Attack Ad

http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2010/10/chevron_punked_yes_men.php

An apparent Chevron ad campaign decrying the oil giant's years of polluting Third World locales and pledging to change its ways was the spitting image of the real thing. But Scrooge-like changes of heart are only for the movies. The San Ramon-based oil giant has, in fact, launched a touchy-feely ad campaign based on the theme "We agree." But It turns out the most provocative parts of the "We Agree" campaign were a clever hoax that fooled a number of media outlets.

Chevron is the latest target of The Yes Men, a group of "corporate raiders" who shame businesses via pranks of this sort. Here's how it works:

Chevron's actual ad spiel can be found at http://www.chevron.com/weagree/. But the parody ad is at the almost -- but not quite -- identical address of http://chevron-weagree.com/. That hyphen makes all the difference.

Instead of moving ads testifying to the oil giant's efforts to support renewable energy and act as a global good neighbor, Chevron apparently castigates itself for years of environmental misdeeds in the Third World.

Budrus: A Palestinian story of non-violent protest

By Yolande Knell BBC News, Jerusalem

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11555031

n the opening sequence of the new documentary film, Budrus, the camera follows a winding road to the home of Palestinian activist, Ayed Morrar.

"We don't have time for war. We want to raise our kids in peace and hope," he states in Hebrew, addressing any Israelis in the cinema audience.

Mr Morrar comes from one of six small villages close to the occupied West Bank's border with Israel, which were due to be encircled by the Israeli separation barrier in 2003.

The plans would have cut off Budrus residents' access to some 300 acres of land and torn up their olive trees.

The film, produced by a Palestinian and an Israeli, follows the villagers' largely peaceful protests against the barrier............

Francis Alys, A Story of Deception at WIELS

	WIELS Contemporary Art Centre
	Francis Alÿs, "The Green Line," 2004. Video documentation of an action. Photo by Julien Devaux. © Francis Alÿs.		Francis Alÿs A Story of Deception 9 October 2010 – 30 January 2011 Opening: 8 October 2010, 18:30-21:00 WIELS Avenue Van Volxemlaan 354 1190 Brussels Belgium www.wiels.org
	WIELS presents a major survey exhibition of Francis Alÿs (b. 1959 Belgium), one of contemporary art's most influential figures. The retrospective will present pictorial works alongside a number of new pieces, which have never been shown before. No less than 18 films documenting the artist's actions are featured in the show, ranging from tragicomic failures to poetic observations and other works, which metaphorically address current issues. Paintings, drawings, installations and material drawn from a dozen other works complete the retrospective, which will allow visitors to follow the successive stages in the development of Alÿs' oeuvre and which have led him to become one of the most important artists of his generation. As the title of the exhibition hints, Alÿs questions our reason for being and the utility of things and actions, as well as the way we observe them and give form to them: for deception can be understood as artifice, hallucination, or disillusion. For Alÿs, there is only a fine line between relevance and inutility and he often plays with the illusions that prop up certain ideas, symbols or acts. His work often starts with a simple act, performed either by him or by others, which is documented in any wide number of media, without ever really necessarily coming to a final conclusion. Working in urban settings or in dramatic landscapes, he creates fable-like interventions, which frequently address a historical or political concern attached to a specific site.



With a Provocative Couch Gag, Banksy Tags Up on ‘The Simpsons’

From New York Times

We didn’t plan on returning to “The Simpsons” so soon after last week, but we couldn’t pass up a memorable sequence from Sunday night’s episode attributed to an art-world provocateur not necessarily known for his forays into animated comedy.

Typically, the “couch gag” in the opening credits of “The Simpsons” is a spot for its writers to slip in one more punchline before the cartoon family assembles to watch its own show. But on Sunday that running joke went to a very dark place: a sweatshop where workers were seen laboring on frames of “Simpsons” animation while vats of toxic chemicals emitted sinister fumes and rats gnawed on bones; where small furry animals were tossed into a machine that turned them into stuffing for Bart Simpson dolls; packages were sealed with the tongue of a dolphin’s decapitated head; and holes were punched in DVDs on the horn of a chained-up unicorn. The final shot was the Twentieth Century Fox logo, cast in an ominous light and surrounded by barbed wire – followed by the traditionally upbeat “Simpsons” fanfare and the credit for the show’s creators.

National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens

George Osodi, "Oil Rich Niger Delta," 2003-2007. Photographic installation, projection of 120 digital photographs, duration: 10' loop. National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, Inv. No. 668/10.

Politics of Art From the EMST collection 13 October 2010 – 30 January 2011 National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens Building of the Athens Conservatory, Vas. Georgiou B'17-19 & Rigillis street (entrance from Rigillis Street) Athens, Greece www.emst.gr Curated by: Anna Kafetsi, Director of EMST



the first Palestinian Human Rights Film Festival at an-Najah University

My visit to Nablus coincided with the first Palestinian Human Rights Film Festival at an-Najah University. Even better than the films shown were the panel discussions afterwards, on issues such as refugees, resistance and women’s rights. The first film I saw was “To Shoot an Elephant” (watch it here), a brutal, highly-recommended documentary shot by International Solidarity Movement activists who happened to be in Gaza as the 2008/09 massacre unfolded. After the screening the audience communicated with director Alberto Arce via a video link-up to Spain. (Alberto is permanently banned from entry into Israeli-controlled territory.)

Alberto said this: “It is not my job to tell the Palestinians what to do. It’s my job to support the Palestinians and to witness what’s happening to them. The Palestinians have suffered so much from the actions of foreigners, and foreigners have no right to impose their beliefs on Palestinians.”



National Council of Culture and the Arts, Chile

DISLOCACION
Ingrid Wildi Merino
(Author and Curator)
September through November, 2010


Santiago, Chile

www.dislocacion.cl

Voluspa Jarpa, Virtual display, "The Library of Non-history."
Sketch, transparent book, 2010.

DISLOCACION came about an invitation by the Swiss Embassy in Chile to put together an exhibit concept commemorating the Bicentennial of the Chilean Independence during the year 2010. The term "dislocation" thereby refers to the action and effect of separating a member from its articulating core. The term indicates a discontinuity within an ongoing process, a displacement and a disarticulation. The subject matter of DISLOCACION is framed within globalization, its causes and effects, showing a kind of "reproduced nomadism", which is implied in several concrete ways, especially in video-essays by Ursula Biemann, Sylvie Boisseau / Frank Westermeyer and Lotty Rosenfeld. Also, there are other aesthetic ventures by Thomas Hirschhorn, Alfredo Jaar, Juan Castillo and Voluspa Jarpa all of which deal with how people live out of phase in terms of economics, history or culture. As an artist and scholar used to engage in collaboration with theorists and other visual artists, DISLOCACION gave me an opportunity both as a curator and artist to conduct a research on the structure of globalization, the significance of migration, territorial displacement and all kinds of social, political and cultural differences. The aim is not to treat migration from a historical perspective.