Billbored – a creative idea from Pollocks – is a viral art initiative aiming to empower people, which took place amidst the backdrop of the General Election.
We sent Red Bull Reporter Melissa Hogenboom to interview the key protaganists involved in Billbored – Josef Valentino and Niki Best – to find out the idea behind the project and here's what they had to say...
In what ways are you both involved with Billbored?
Josef: I’m creative dictator – that’s what my signature says.
Niki: I’m second in demand – executive producer.
How did you two meet?
Niki: We’ve worked on a few things before together, e.g. the Tiger Beer project where we lit up the west pier of Brighton.
Josef: We really enjoyed working together. Sometimes you just have to surround yourselves with people that inspire and bring out the best in you. That’s a beautiful way of summing up our relationship really; we bring out the best in each other so that’s essentially how Niki got involved with Pollocks.
Tell us about your current project Billbored?
Josef: Billbored was inspired by the General Election and was a reaction to the political party’s campaigns using billboards and how we allow that intrusion in our day to day lives, without essentially wondering why we’re being dictated to.
I found it quite remarkable that in a general election, the Government has tried to ‘sell’ to us, and I find it interesting that people aren’t really allowed the opportunity to tell the government what they want.
Realistically speaking a government is there to serve the people so what we’ve done is that we’ve created a democratic platform that gives people back the billboard broadcast ability to communicate their expression in response to how they want to live their life.
Niki: The exciting thing about this is that we only commissioned about 10 or 15 billboards to launch the website, but got two to three hundred from people who have submitted themselves, which is a great response, and we’re talking all that in four days, not months.
Josef: We’re so suppressed. So in a way it’s about alleviating suppression, without getting too political because we don’t allow ourselves to support a particular party. It really is about supporting the people and giving them the opportunity to have their voice heard, rather than saying ‘vote Conservative, don’t vote Labour, don’t vote BNP, don’t do this.’
Niki: Yeah it’s personalities against politics. It’s not about one person in the way that American politics are very much about personality, and that’s how it’s turning here. Everyone is very disillusioned and bored, hence the BILLBORED. We’re just bored of it being shoved down our face.
How is art linked to politics for you?
Josef: Deborah Born, one of the team, presented the idea for vision for change, which we’ve really embarked on. We’re not asking people to create a political barrier, but asking them to do something quite specific which is to visualise their vision for change.
David Cameron ironically has asked people to ‘Vote for Change’ but people don’t believe in their vote, people believe image. I’m not a politician, I’m an artist and I believe in art so all I can do is use my tools. I think that what Billbored does is it believes in the power of art, and the power of politics but it sees a synergy where one can support the other, does that make sense? (asks Niki).
I don’t want to complicate things too much, but it’s just the idea that art can life someone’s visual perspective, make things clearer.
Niki: There is an official legislation that states that you can’t do anything political on a billboard – legally not allowed to. What about the power of free speech? People have missed a demographic. Nothing’s been aimed at the big chunk in the middle who really matter. Think of it as the overall fed-up-ness.
Who do you think/hope is going to listen to this project?
Josef: The 52% of people that don’t vote in the General Election hopefully. I hope that those people are inspired by us to at least vote.
How did you get people involved?
J: We sent out an email, Niki had her contacts in the art world so we got Anthony Burrel to do the campaign art-work. He does the underground tube maps etc. He grabbed the core basic energy of what we were trying to do. M.I.A was introduced via a cassette player so she sent her art work over from NY. It was a spiral affect. The beautiful thing is it’s got something about it, grass roots. I can compare it to a shit brand in PR; you have to try really hard. But if it’s good it speaks for itself, everyone talks about it. In art it’s similar, if its art and you believe in it....It was a spiral affect of introductions spreading around.
What’s next for this project?
Josef: Project Number Two. We haven’t told a journalist yet but I’ll tell you. Project Two is 'Save The Honey Bee'. Don’t mess up nature man. Billbored is about having the small person have a big voice, and the bee is the smallest of the mammals. We still have to work out our objective on it.
For more information and to find out how you can get involved, head to Billbored and for Melissa's full report head to www.redbullreporter.com/2010/05/billbored/
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