Well the Gulf Labor Coalition is a group of artists, writers, curators, scholars and other cultural workers. Who are advocating for greater workers' rights and freedom of expression in the construction of new cultural institutions on Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. >> The island of happiness. >> Yes, the island of happiness is the literal translation of Saadiyat Island So, we came together originally in 2011, I believe. When the building, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi was first announced and there was a period of private negotiation with Guggenheim. For a number of months where we're trying to secure some assurances. Basically about what kind of workers' rights would be respected during this construction of the new Guggenheim. And when we were unable to secure that, we then announced a public boycott. And there are about 2,300 signatories to the public boycott of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi. And basically the boycott, if you're a signatory you agree not to sell work to the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection. Not to exhibit work, at the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi once it's constructed. Not to participate in events on behalf of the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, those are already happening, and that's basically the boycott. >> And it's important to note that the list includes artists like yourself, Hans Hocket, Willie collection [INAUDIBLE]. Because it's different, the list that includes all kinds of people but a boycott only works if it's also people who the museum like that would want to its art collection, right. >> Well, basically the idea of the web plot grew out of the fact that the mandate of Guggenheim Abu Dhabi from TDIC, it's partner in the Emirates. In Abu Dhabi is that it has to both collect and exhibit at least 50% artists from the Middle East, compares from the Middle East. And so, those are the artists who provide the leverage of boycott. And the idea really was to get as many artists as possible who would be the artists necessary to form that collection. And those exhibitions to be participants in the boycott, and many of them are. >> So there's also that dimension of history in the present at play here. Museums have always used a very, very tough labor policies, if not harsher than tough. So, can you talk a little bit about that? >> Well, many of us who were in the core working group of Gulf Labor which includes people from the the United States, Europe, South Asia, and Middle East. Became involved with organizing Gulf Labor because we had worked in the United Arab Emirates, or in the Gulf, or both. And because of that, we actually felt personally implicated in this system, and personally responsible to do something about it. For us, there is some kind of promise in the construction of these new museums in Middle East. Which is the sort of idea that's held out by these autocratic rulers, that these museums will be beacons of free expression. That there will be places where a new kind of culture and kind of free zone, right. >> Version of free. >> Yeah, yeah, no, I mean they basically are the cultural equivalent of special economic zones. Basically where freedoms will be granted that are not granted anywhere else, right? And that's supposed to be enough, it's supposed to be enough that that will happen once the museum is built. And we're supposed to be so grateful for that, that we ignore everything about how the museum is being built, right? But, we just think that these museums can be and do more. I think, we think more of museums, of these museums, than they do of themselves. And we expect more of them than they do of themselves but I don't think that's wrong. >> Yeah, no in fact it's also position taking in a sense, not just politically but also identification, right? Like you mentioned how many of you in the core group have done work there. >> Yes. >> And that puts you as workers. Often museums want to assume that the artist does not see him or herself as a worker. >> I know, which is so crazy. >> When in fact many of us wants to see ourselves as workers. >> [LAUGH] We do, most of us see ourselves as workers. >> And therefore we sympathize not just on a human social justice level. >> We identify. >> But even as workers, we identify. >> We identify. >> With the people doing the construction, you know? >> Well, 52 Weeks was a campaign where Gulf Labor released an artist project, a new artist project, every week for a year as part of a campaign to keep constant pressure. On the Guggenheim, on TIC, the tourism development investment corporation which is the Abu Dhabi authority overseeing Saadiyat island. And on all the kind of Western allies of Saadiyat construction projects. So Louve, on British Museum and on NYU, and on all the partners on Saadiyat Island. And it became a really powerful thing for us, not only because it was this way to exert constant unrelenting pressure. Which really changed the tenor of our conversations and negotiations which had been quite stalled up to that point. They ended a period of being very which is why we got frustrated and decided to do this campaign. But also because a lot of the gave us this way to invite all of these other different voices into Gulf Labor and into the way that we were talking about and thinking about Gulf Labor. And it really kind of changed the way that we saw the boycott. And it allowed us to begin thinking about the boycott as the beginning of a conversation instead of the end of a conversation. >> But that's also what was nice, people could participate no matter where they were living. >> Yes. >> People could put in a huge amount of energy time and ideas, and not as much, but could still be committed. And something that I thought was quite powerful was it's literally a one year campaign. But that exists also after the. >> Yes. >> These were mostly art works, in fact all of them ended up being quite beautiful art works. >> Yeah. >> They exist as a book now, so they have a life into the future, not just in that moment, the now of But one really powerful element was the actions that were part of. >> Exactly, yeah. >> The 52 weeks that happened at the Guggenheim, itself, in New York. Can you describe some of them? >> Yeah, so as part of the 52 weeks, we invited people to propose actions. And that led to the creation of the global ultra luxury faction, or G-U-L-F. Our deniable radical wing, [LAUGH] our direct action faction. And they perform these really incredible direct actions at the Guggenheim in New York and more recently here in Venice. >> So, when they began about two years ago doing direct actions, one of them took place inside the futurist exhibition that was at the Guggenheim. And they actually put up their own sort of futurist manifestos inside the museum. Talking about labor situation in a broad sense, not just related to Abu Dhabi but in a broad sense. For example we know that the workers who do security at the museum are really seriously underpaid as well. That's in New York City, so that's been addressed. On May Day or May first of this year, just a few weeks ago really, we entered, I participated in this even though I'm a member of Gulf Labor Coalition. And not really officially a member of G-U-L-F, but a number of us participated. We went inside the museum and at a particular moment, one of the individuals was sitting on a wheelchair but she in fact was a. And underneath her was a huge banner made out of a parachute, so it was round. So it fit the shape of the Guggenheim. And that was pulled out precisely, I think it was 10 o'clock AM, into a huge statement that said fulfill workers' rights or honor workers' rights. At that moment leaflets came out from the top of the museum and trickled down and people started to read all of these statements that we had. The three demands that we have, which I'm sure Marion covered, which include repayment of recruitment fees, fair wages, and the right to organize in collective bargaining. >> And what about the Museum in Venice? During the Venice you've been doing direct action. [INAUDIBLE] >> So on May Day we occupied the museum and we decided, unlike previous actions where it was just go in and as soon as the security says to leave we leave. This time we agreed that if we were going to stay, that we would take risks actually being arrested. And that was a difficult decision, because three of us had tickets to come to Venice the next day. And if we ended up in confinement, that could have been a real problem. We took the gamble, the museum would not want to see artists being arrested in it's premises and that was correct. Police came out, they told us that they were just waiting for the wagon to come to take us away. They hovered for a while, reset, refused to leave, and then they dispersed and at that point, the museum decided to close its doors. So all these people who were inside up to that point were staying, and then they eventually left the museum. So that by the end of the day the museum was completely empty of people except for us and the security. We had the entire museum to ourselves, it was a very strange and surreal experience. One week later, here in Venice for the opening of the bi-annual we decided to mount a marine landing on the canal side of the Peggy Good art collection. >> And you'll see that beautiful boat, in that drawing. >> Yeah, those sketches press it. In a sense it was actually taken from a Whistler drawing from the 19th century. Whistler had come here and made sketches of Venice and it was actually just a napkin sketch that I threw together and said what if we do something like this. And that ended up being incorporated into this huge banner that is inside the here. The reason for that is because the curator really wanted to have at least some physical Presence of Gulf Labor in the exhibition. And what we wanted to do was to have these panels that would be representing the research we did. So there would be almost no object that could be called an artwork, so it was a compromise. But, as says, we worked with Sally Docks, which is a kind of squatter space here in Venice we've been doing a lot of important actions over the years. We worked out an arrangement with some boats and we took off from sailing docks with a crew of people, Gulf labor members involved. G-U-L-F, and friends, photographers, and we went around and literally landed on the dock that sits on the Grand Canal in front of the Peggy Guggenheim and took it over very quickly. Put huge banners out and put flags out and all kinds of material, so we just did that. They immediately closed the doors that go into the museum so no one could get inside and we had hoped to actually occupy the entire space. So that became a bit of a problem, but we stayed there. At one point, and you'll see an image, we thought they had sent or someone had sent police, actually riot police in a boat. And they went by, and after a bit, instead of coming to get us, they sort of waved to us, we realized it was an art project. So nothing happened until a smaller group, contingent of people decided to get back on the boat and go around and get into the front door of the museum. Which was still open to the public, and at that point the museum officials here in Venice met with a small group of people from this action. And discussed what we wanted, which was to meet with the Board of Directors. We've been meeting with the museum for five years, I'm sure Miriam's discussed this, and we really have gotten almost nowhere with them. And we thought, if we go to the next level, to the Board of Directors, maybe we can have some of our concerns addressed more directly. [MUSIC] >> We, are the precarious workers pageant. We are here to protest the Guggenheim museum in Abu Dhabi. >> Fair wage. >> Fair wage. >> Right to organize. >> Right to organize. >> And no debt. >> And no debt. >> There is one particular saint. >> There is one particular saint. >> Here in Italy. >> Here in Italy. >> Who looks after. >> Who looks after. >> Precarious workers. >> Precarious workers. >> His name is San Precario. >> His name is San Precario. >> Let us pray for San Precario. Power to the precarious. >> Power to the precarious.
