Climate Games, Round#1, November 30th, Lisbon.

The Art of Dirt / Suj’Arte

Here is the deal: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation owns 100% of the Partex Oil and Gas company, one of biggest fossil fuel multinationals in Portugal, with €2,8 billion of capital funds, of which around €800 millions come directly from fossil fuel sale. All the profit of Partex goes directly to the Foundation, which in turn uses it for cultural, artistic, environmental and development projects that serve to cover the underlying destructive activities.

Neat setup, eh? Suj’Arte / The Art of Dirt team thought so. But it shouldn’t have taken decades to be revealed.

In an action in three acts, they played games in and around Gulbenkian Foundation.

In Act I: Rush to Wash they ran the full distance from Partex to the Foundation with an art flag filthy of oil. When they got to the Foundation, the flag was completely clean… just like Gulbenkian’s activities.

In Act II: Dirty Art, they prepared a lovely statue (of an angel!), filled it with oil, and delivered it as a prize. Until now, the oil fill of the Foundation’s activities seemed to have been hidden well, but would the angel statue also resist the temptation of spilling what it hides?

And finally in Act III: The Cleaning Fest, they called for an image cleaning festival where they literally tried to wash the oil off pieces of art. It wasn’t enough, but they did their best.