Nestled in the Somerset countryside, Glastonbury Festival is something of a bucolic idyl, but this year the message coming from one of the event’s main art stages is clear: we are at a critical moment in terms of global politics, and we need to act now.
“The art world, along with a lot the rest of the Western liberal world, is sleepwalking into the most intolerable state of affairs,” says the Turner Prize-winning artist Mark Wallinger, who is presenting a new work at Terminal 1. The stage made its debut at Glastonbury last year and is constructed using salvaged materials from Heathrow Airport. To enter, visitors must answer a question from the British citizenship test—incorrect answers get you sent to the back of the queue.
This year, the title of the show is No Human is Illegal— “a response to all of the occupations around the world,” says the curator Oriana Garzon. Wallinger has created his new installation, Jungle Gym, to shine a spotlight on the suffering of children, who he says are “the innocents in this world who have no say and no power”. The artist describes the ongoing war in Gaza as “just intolerable”. The child aid agency Unicef estimates that more than 50,000 children have been killed or injured in Gaza during 600 days of the Israel-Hamas war.
Wallinger has used 100% cyan in his new work; the bright colour is also known as Unicef blue. “Unicef presents some kind of hope in the midst of this all,” he says.
The maze-like installation is also intended to reflect the disorientating bureaucracy around migration and the hostility migrants face during the process. Wallinger notes how right-wing politicians exploit migration figures to create a sense of panic among voters. “Over the past 50 years, the population of the world has doubled from four to eight billion, while the number of migrants in the world has remained fairly constant at 3.5%,” he says. “The number of sovereign countries has doubled over 70 years, so we’ve got more borders and twice as many people.”
Trump has made mass deportations the cornerstone of his presidency, recently ordering Ice (US Immigration and Customs Enforcement) officers to expand efforts to detain and deport immigrants in some of America’s largest cities including Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. “There is this authoritarian creep that’s been happening around the world,” Wallinger says. “It’s very hard to find leaders who aren’t utter narcissist egoists or who aren’t representing money and interest groups.”
Garzon believes the curatorial message of this year’s programme at Terminal 1 is more crucial than ever. “This is the first generation in humanity that has seen a genocide being televised,” she says. “I feel that we are in a state of shock, because we didn’t see this kind of fascism coming so fast, but we need to wake up really quickly.”
Migration and all its positive connotations are at the heart of Terminal 1, where many exhibiting and performing artists—hailing from Pakistan, Brazil and South Africa among other places—consider themselves immigrants. “Our space here is a safe space for the migrant community, and we cannot have a better canvas than Glastonbury Festival in the middle of the [British] empire,” Garzon says. She notes that her programme has been “fully supported” by the organisers of Glastonbury.
Other acts have come under fire. In the run up to the festival, organisers were sent a “private and confidential” letter, signed by 30 leading figures in the music industry, urging them to remove Irish rappers Kneecap, who have been outspoken in their support for Palestine, from Glastonbury’s line-up. One of the band’s members was recently released on bail having faced terrorism charges for allegedly flying a flag in support of the terrorist group Hezbollah.
It has been revealed that among the letter’s signatories are WME super agents Brandt Joel and David Levy; the latter is also a partner at Endeavor, the entertainment company that recently sold the Frieze art fair and media franchise. Despite the pressure, Glastonbury has not removed Kneecap from the line-up, instead moving the band to a different stage. The BBC has said it will broadcast Kneecap’s performance.
“Organisers are very conscious about it all; Kneecap represents how divided the music industry is,” Garzon says. “The festival has never had to have a big meeting to talk about a band, and they have had to do that [with Kneecap]. We are in a very critical moment for lots of reasons—now more than ever. That’s why we must deliver our message that No Human is Illegal.”
Wallinger agrees that now is the time for collective action against fascism. As he puts it: “It must come from everywhere, from everyone. But if artists have some ability to hit upon something that feels cogent and meaningful or can reach a few more people, that’s the most we can do. We could all despair, but I think now is the time for expressions of solidarity and some kind of hope for the future.”
