The leading UK artist Tacita Dean, who has been based in Berlin for the past 15 years, says that the prospect of the UK voting to leave the Europe Union (EU) in the much anticipated referendum on 23 June fills her “with cold dread”. Brexit could make London as an art centre “provincial once more”, she fears.
Dean is making a work that is partly inspired by the prospect of Brexit and has a Shakespearean dimension. “I am making the largest blackboard drawing I have ever embarked upon," she says. "It is based on The Tempest and is 32-foot long. As I often write on the boards things that come into my head as I draw, I've been extremely conscious of Brexit since beginning work on it. The Tempest is a manufactured storm, as is this EU Referendum, but unlike Prospero, [David] Cameron cannot control it and Caliban is loose on the island,” the artist says, referring to the UK Prime Minister's decision to call a referendum
Dean is among 282 cultural figures who in mid May signed an open letter warning that if Britain were to leave the EU, it would become an “outsider shouting from the wings…. Britain is not just stronger in Europe, it is more imaginative and more creative, and our global creative success would be severely weakened by walking away.”
Other artist signatories include Richard Wentworth, Anish Kapoor, Cornelia Parker, Elizabeth Price, Shirazeh Houshiary and the German photographer Wolfgang Tillmans who has made a series of 26 posters outlining why he believes Britain should stay in Europe. Tillmans displayed the posters at Somerset House during the Photo London art fair (19-22 May), which urge people to use their vote. One warns: "What is lost is lost forever."
Fellow Turner Prize-winning artist Tomma Abts, who, like Tillmans, moved to London from Germany, says: “Britain’s art world would be in danger of becoming provincial again in the long run, because the in ux of young interna- tional artists would come to a halt. We should do the opposite of Brexit: become more open and create more connections and exchange programmes.” Meanwhile, a poster designed by the artist Michael Craig-Martin features a lightbulb on a hot pink background with text declaring: "Britain in the EU."
Iranian-born artist Houshiary, who moved to London in 1974, says: “The world is developing and changing, and we have to slowly remove boundaries. The fact that we want to go backwards, and return to what we were in the past, is not growth; this would be bad for creativity, bad for science, it is bad for every single individual. It is better to develop, and have a different kind of consciousness that connects us to other people.”
Munira Mirza, the former deputy mayor of London for culture and education, like her former boss, Boris Johnson, supports Brexit. Writing on the website for a-n The Artists Information Company, she says that the UK culture sector will benefit from increased funding, even though the country will lose vital EU grants.
“Britain is a massive net contributor to the EU budget—£350m every week—of which only around half is returned through grants and the rebate (and only a tiny fraction of that for cultural projects). To put this figure in context, Arts Council England’s budget for the entire year is approximately £600m,” Mirza writes.
Mirza criticises the "costly box-ticking and distortion that comes with EU funding.” The practical issues of how to organise tours and transport art works would, she argues, be worked out as part of a new trade negotiation.
But in a survey conducted by the Creative Industries Federation—a membership body for the UK’s arts, creative industries and cultural education—96% of CIF members cited access to EU funding as a reason for “a vote of confidence in Europe”. Other sector figures say that the loss of mobility and influence for the UK in Europe could be another harmful consequence of Brexit.
On 10 May, David Cameron chose the British Museum's Great Court to make a key speech setting out the reasons why the UK should remain in the EU. "Britain is stronger and safer in the EU, as well as better off," he said.
