Filed under: film, politic + insurrection: other | Tags: art, ☭☭☭, die fetten jahre sind vorbei, every heart is a revolutionary cell, louis vuitton, pigs, sds, student activism, tattoos, the edukators, the fat years are over, wim deloye
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Since writing about The Edukators a while back, I’ve come back to it a fair number of times. Not to give away any of the plot (see it, it’s brilliant), but the end sentiment shuffles somewhat over to “some people never change” as quoted on the note at the end. A literalised writing on the wall if you will, with the person in question being a german ex-SDSer – turned corporate millionaire- ostensibly still with the radicredientials of his student days.
But just how sustainable is student activism anymore? Since then, at least from what I can gather in the US, the nature of the university system itself seems to have changed. In ’68,
you could graduate $2000 or $3000 in debt and go on to be a committed activist for the rest of your life; many of the 68 vets have done just this. Today you’re going to be graduating from the same schools with something like $100k in debt. and activism is almost something you have to give up as you hit your senior year, if this makes sense. Similarly, whereas most stuff went down at big elite institutions like Columbia or UC – Berkley, today it’s happening at state, community and even high school campuses, which is especially incredible. What then will the future look like – are many of SDS, for example, destined to become the same kind of benevolent i-bankers, corrupting the system from within (if at all)?
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I don’t know when said fat years will be over. But in the year of the pig, corporate branding reaches new levels, with pigs getting Louis Vuitton tattoes. There’s an interview over at if it’s hip it’s here with Belgian artist Wim Deloye, a vegetarian who tattoos live pigs (albeit sedated) for art’s sake. To quote from the interview:
Wim: I started tattooing pig hides, which I’d get from the slaughterhouses, in 1994. It was only in 1997 that I started to work on live sedated pigs. I tattoo pigs because they grow fast and they are so much better to tattoo than fish. I tattoo them when they are young and I like the way the artwork stretches and distorts over time. Essentially, we invest in small tattoos and we harvest large paintings.
I don’t know how I feel about the cruelty aspect of this, but some of the stretched pigskins look too much like human skin for comfort. There’s some more examples at the same site.
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(images from the Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris)
And a youtube video of the tattooing. (warning: kind of horrific)
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A vegetarian who tattoos sedated live pigs… i wonder why is he vegetarian!
Comment by bobble bee June 3, 2008 @ 6:18 amI assume is not for animal rights… he just might be too aware of the cruelties we do to animals after all… and he doesn’t want to “eat” such thing.
the pigs are still bred expressly for their skin though? apparently they live out their natural lives and are only stretched afterwards. not that this makes me feel any less icky about it
Comment by killingdenouement June 5, 2008 @ 1:15 am[...] don’t know who did this but, such joyousness combined: a polaroid of my favourite quote from Die Fetten Jahre Sind Vorbei or, The Edukators – “every heart is a revolutionary cell”. When I feel cold I wear it [...]
Pingback by the polaroid years are over « killing denouement June 30, 2008 @ 4:09 am