About this Event
As part of the public programming for Silent Coup, a/political is hosting a one-off discussion between journalist and filmmaker John Pilger, artist Peter Kennard and journalist and author Matt Kennard.
Using examples from the work of all three, the discussion will examine the ever-increasing power of corporations in today’s society and the legal frameworks that have allowed these companies to thrive. They’ll touch on the new findings in Matt’s new book Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy, co-authored by investigative journalist Claire Provost.
They'll also examine why the book inspired Peter Kennard to create a series of new works visualising the unseen power of corporations such as BP, Shell and BAE Systems, as well as how to use art and journalism to respond to creeping corporate power.
This event is taking place as part of the public programming for Silent Coup: a new body of work by British artist Peter Kennard based on the revelatory book by investigative journalists Claire Provost and Matt Kennard. Silent Coup: How Corporations Overthrew Democracy is the result of reports from 25 countries around the world, highlighting complex issues including the unstoppable rise of global corporate power and the political interference of super-corporations in functioning democracies, dictating how resources are allocated, territories are governed, and justice is defined.
John Pilger
John Pilger was born and grew up in Bondi, Sydney, Australia. He launched his first newspaper at Sydney High School and later completed a four year cadetship with Australian Consolidated Press. Arriving in London, Pilger freelanced, then joined Reuters, moving to the London Daily Mirror, Britain's biggest selling newspaper, which was then changing to a serious tabloid. He became chief foreign correspondent and reported from all over the world, covering numerous wars, notably Vietnam. Still in his twenties, he became the youngest journalist to receive Britain's highest award for journalism, Journalist of the Year and was the first to win it twice. He has won an American TV Academy Award, an Emmy, and a British Academy Award, a BAFTA for his documentaries, which have also won numerous US and European awards, such as as the Royal Television Society's Best Documentary. The British Film Institute includes his 1979 film, Year Zero: the Silent Death of Cambodia among the ten most important documentaries of the twentieth century. His articles appear worldwide. In 2001, he curated a major exhibition at the London Barbican, Reporting the World: John Pilger's Eyewitness Photographers, a tribute to the great black-and-white photographers he has worked alongside. In 2003, he was awarded the prestigious Sophie Prize for '30 years of exposing injustice and promoting human rights.' In 2009, he was awarded Australia's human rights prize, the Sydney Peace Prize. He has received honorary doctorates from universities in the UK and abroad. In 2017, the British Library announced a John Pilger Archive of all his written and filmed work. He has made 61 documentaries. The most recent were The Coming War on China, and The Dirty War on the National Health Service.
www.johnpilger.com / @johnpilger on social media.
Matt Kennard
Matt Kennard is co-founder and chief investigator at Declassified UK, a news outlet investigating British foreign policy. He was a fellow and then director at the Centre for Investigative Journalism (CIJ) in London. He has worked as a staff writer for the Financial Times in Washington DC, New York, and London. He is the author of two acclaimed books: Irregular Army (2012) and The Racket (2015). He lives in London.
www.declasiffieduk.org / @mattkennard on social media.
Peter Kennard
Peter Kennard was born in London in 1949 and lives and works in Hackney, East London. He studied at the Slade and the Royal College of Art. His work has been at the cutting edge of political art since his work protesting the Vietnam War in 1968. His photomontages, installations and paintings are known globally, gaining exposure in galleries, on the streets, in newspapers, magazines, posters and books. In recent years his work has been included in many group exhibitions, including Media Burn; Tate Modern. Rude Britannia, Tate Britain; Forms of Resistance, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven and solo exhibitions including, At Earth in Raven Row, London. He had a year-long retrospective, Peter Kennard: Unofficial War Artist , at the Imperial War Museum in 2015-16. His work is in many public collections including, in the UK, Tate, Victoria and Albert Museum, Imperial War Museum, Science Museum, National Portrait Gallery, British Museum, British Council and Arts Council Collection. He has had 6 books published, his most recent Peter Kennard: Visual Dissent, Pluto Press 2019. He is Professor of Political Art at the Royal College of Art, London.
www.peterkennard.com / @peterkannardx on social media.
a/political
a/political explores radical knowledge through the principle of Cultural Terror. Working with artists and agitators, the collective platforms voices that interrogate the critical issues and dominant narratives of our time. a/political functions through interventions, commissions and a collection of contemporary art. Projects include ORDER with Democracia; Black Flag with Santiago Sierra; The Game and INSURRECTION with Andres Serrano and Alamut with Laibach. Recently initiated, the a/political label uses the same methodology to collaborate on music projects that might be unsuitable for the mainstream industry. a/political is based in London, working closely with The Foundry and FOUNDRY UNIFORM in Maubourguet, Midi-Pyrénées.
www.a-political.org / @apoliticalorg on social media.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
a/political, 6 Stannary Street, London, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00 to GBP 10.00
