The Guardian has broken the news that the Biennale of Sydney (BOS) has severed ties with
detention centre operator Transfield Services. Transfield Holdings chairman Luca
Belgiorno-Nettis has resigned from his role as chair of the BOS. Belgiorno-Nettis has
acknowledged the success of the artists led boycott of the Biennale in forcing him out.
---- The following article on the links between Transfield and the Sydney art world was
written for issue 1 of The Platform. It is interesting to note that whilst Transfield and
the BOS have now formally severed ties, Transfield remains a principle sponsor of the
Sydney Chamber Orchestra and Luca Belgiorno-Nettis remains its chair. ---- Transfield
Services has hit pay dirt. Indefinite detention is big business and the contracts are
flowing in. Transfield has already made a whopping $215 million in just twelve months,
building the fences, erecting the tents, and employing the guards that keep hundreds of
vulnerable refugees detained in the tropical heat of Nauru?s former phosphate mine.
Meanwhile, Transfield?s Nauran employees are paid a pitiful $4 an hour.
And the contracts keep coming. For the first time one company will be responsible for
providing the guards who do the beatings, and the social workers who mop up afterwards.
The Salvation Army has lost its contract to run welfare services on Nauru, and Transfield
is set to replace them. This ?proud? Sydney company is now positioned to run every aspect
of an immigration detention service ? everything from the substandard accommodation to the
substandard food and the incompetent unmotivated ?welfare? staff can all be yours, direct
from Transfield Services!
But it?s all for a good cause, the torture of refugees funds art and culture to enrich the
lives of Sydney?s richest! Transfield Services is enmeshed in the Sydney arts scene almost
as heavily as it?s enmeshed in destroying the lives of people fleeing persecution.
Since its establishment in 1973 the Biennale of Sydney has become the most prestigious
visual arts event on the Australian calendar. It?s internationally prominent amongst the
two hundred such events held annually, and is perhaps comparable in scope and influence to
the oldest arts biennale, that in Venice. And it?s brought to you by Transfield.
Transfield founder Franco Belgiorno-Nettis is also Biennale of Sydney founder Franco
Belgiorno-Nettis. For 41 years the Biennale of Sydney has been the centrepiece of
Transfield?s arts empire. Transfield Holdings operates an ?art rental program? leasing out
works from its expensive private collection. The Transfield Foundation (a joint venture of
Transfield Services and Transfield Holdings!) pours money into the Australian Chamber
Orchestra, and coincidentally, the Chairman of the Australia Chamber Orchestra is one
Guido Belgiorno-Nettis, Executive Director of Transfield Holdings.
Art is a big deal for this company. It?s not just culture wash (although its value as
culture-wash is extensive). Art, for Transfield, is about status, prestige and legitimacy.
It is no coincidence that the venues for Biennale events include the private residences of
Transfield directors and executives.
It is for these reasons that a Sydney Arts educator, Matthew Kiem, has published a call
for a boycott of the Biennale of Sydney. If art means as much to Transfield as its
entanglements suggest, an arts boycott of this company could at least inconvenience those
involved in the corporate facilitation of human misery. At the very least, a public
boycott of the Biennale of Sydney could undermine some of the culture-wash that Transfield
deploys to pretty up its image whilst it works on the destruction of human lives.
It is interesting to note just how defensive the Biennale of Sydney have been to criticism
of Transfield Services. On their official twitter account the Biennale organisers wrote:
?RE: comments on BOS sponsors: BOS brings attn 2 the ideas & issues of our times ?
objectors only deny the legitimate voice of BOS artists?
The irony could not be more obvious if it were deliberately constructed.
Related Link: http://www.anarchistaffinity.org/
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* paper of Anarchist Affinity
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» (en) Australia, The Platform #1* - Blood Money for Art ? Transfield and the Sydney Biennale by Kieran