tässä juttu Themepark -lehdestä:
a crime against humanity
interview with gimpo by lars eriksen
Notorious daydreamers may often ponder how to dispose a million pounds if bestowed with the opportunity. Undoubtedly the attainment of an instantaneous fortune would present event the most sagacious of human beings with the predicament of ho to manage this vast wealth. On the 23rd of August 1994, Gimpo watched and filmed the K Foundation burn a million pounds on the Isle of Jura. Here he tells themeparks of some of the thoughts that went through his head on that strange night off the west coast of Scotland. Thoughts about BMW's, American television, killing for money and why popstars can not be artists.
"I did not know Jimmy and Bill were going to burn the money. They said, 'come on we are gonna do something and it's gonna be good'. There was initially going to be this media event, but they could not tell anybody about it, so no one would turn up. Instead they just got pissed, and we came up here. We hired a private plane from South London. I sat in the front of the plane all the time thinking, 'Right, we've got a million pound. What are they gonna fucking do, what are they gonna do!' I wanted to throw the others and some of the money off the plane so I could say they killed each other fighting over it. All these things go through your head when you have got a million quid. Me and the journalist that Jimmy and Bill had brought along were talking about nicking it. The parked car was there with a million pounds in the trunk, but what the fuck were we gonna do? We were stuck on an island".
How deliberately planned was the filming of the burning?
"This was not planned to be a real film. It was just documentation of what was happening. They gave me a camera, and I became a filmmaker. So I got a fucking million pound film! The film only came out because Omnibus wanted to do a program about them, and this bloke saw this film and said, oh yeah it's like an art film, you should make a film about it. So we decided to put this onto 16mm. It is so good and it is so crap. It could be anything. You can't even see it half the time. Just a bunch of blokes making a fire. It is the fucking drunkest I have ever seen Jimmy in my life. Never seen him drink so much. They had known about it for months. Of course they were nervous. Everyday since they have regretted it. I mean, what the fuck did we do that for?"
Approximately a year after the burning, Gimpo and the K Foundation embarked on a national tour with the film. As they pursued a revelation as to why they had decided to burn the money, they proposed to the public whether what they had done constituted a crime against humanity.
"We went to Belgrade where we were invited by the B92 radio station. It was great. People asked some really good questions. They did not know what was going on. To them paper money did not have any value. When we went to Royal College of Art, nobody dared ask a question. They were afraid of not being smart enough. People still don't believe we did it. When we have been out on tour, it does not matter whether people believe it or not or agree with it or not. It is the fact that somebody has done it. In Los Angeles at Christmas they have a TV station that just has a fire on it. Then you can sit there and look at the fire and then what? When we show the film on tour people leave after the first ten minutes. Maybe they were expecting something else".
On November 5, 1995 Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond signed an agreement not to discuss the burning incident for the next 23 years. Simultaneously Gimpo and author Chris Brook began work on their book on the subject of burning a million quid, and kept touring with the film.
"Yeah, I was on Prozac at the time we went on the road with the film. I had to make public speeches and answer people's questions. It was easier on Prozac. After the first few goes, Jimmy and Bill did not want to speak of it, so it was like here is Gimpo, he knows what it was like. People wanted to know, 'why did you do it'? They just did it. Everyday Bill and Jimmy come up with a different reason, but people still want a definitive art statement. I think Iknow why tehy did it, in my heart of heart I know, but then in everybody's heart of heart they think they know why they did it".
So what is your theory?
"Because nobody else has, that is one reason. They were the first to do it, so nobody has to do it again. When they came out with their music they were the first to make really quality use of samples as well".
You reckon they should be credited for being groundbreaking musicians?
"Don't know about musicians. Musicians are playing live music, you know what I mean. Like Phil Collins. It's like when they offered the forty grand to Rachel Whiteread for being the worst artist, at the same time she won the Turner Prize for twenty grand. Twenty grand for the best artist! That is crap. Who is to tell who is the best or who is the worst.
So because Jimmy and Bill did that [with the samples], they went against the Establishment. And then they burned the million. If you are a popstar you can't become an artist. You can't, it is simply illegal. Whether it is the hierarchy or whatever, there is a rule whithin the ranks of artists that popstars should fuck off. David Bowie keeps doing it, but it is just like 'ehh. it's just a popstar's painting!' Jimmy was gonna go to the Slade School of Art years ago, but he did not go.
He could have been an artist, but he was not allowed to be one, so he turned into a popstar".
As Gimpo recalls the hour of the burning in the tiny boatman's house, a recurring apprehension exerts its influence on his thoughts and emotions: the unnerving and all too human fascination with instant richness seem for a monent to surpass any idealistic intentions he might apply to his debut as a filmmaker. It also presents me with another 'solution' to the equation, one that suggests the undeniable crime of the burning is to put our human nature and desires through the ultimate experiment.
"At one point I had fifty 'grand' behind my back. This could have paid half of a house when I had got back. But then again, where does it stop? Then I would have needed to take the money for the other half. But then you see, I would also have wanted a BMW! I would have been bugging myself for years. Greed does that to you. This is why Jimmy is still twitching when he sees the film. This is why I can't show this film to my sister's husband.
Watching that money burn does something to people. Maybe greed does this to you!"
t: lars eriksen,
[email protected]
