THE ART NEWSPAPER, No.

170, JUNE 2006 News 3

diplomacy does not work,
Altheimer is prepared to return
to combat. He is showing
footage of his sonic assault on
Guantanamo in Arsenal: an
exhibition on sound as
weapon, which opens this
month at Alma Enterprises in
London. He will also be giving
a talk on the mission and hopes
to enlist volunteers and spon-
sors for a second skirmish
around Christmas, should it
prove necessary.
Helen Stoilas
Arsenal is showing at Alma Enterprises,
23 June to 30 July, 1 Vyner Street, London
+44 (0)79 1365 3910
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OSBORNE SAMUEL LLP
23a BRUTON STREET, LONDON W1J 6QG
TEL: 020 7493 7939 FAX: 020 7493 7798
EMAIL: info@osbornesamuel.com
www.osbornesamuel.com
Lynn CHADWICK, Back to Venice,
1988, Bronze, Edition of 9, 63.5 x 76 x 53cm (C 79s)
Exhibiting at Grosvenor House Art & Antiques Fair,
June 15-21, Stand 57
Please contact the gallery for further details
LYNN CHADWICK
7-/
:, Easr 6rn Sr Nrw Yon NY :ooz:
+: z:z-8;,-o,oo www.wiIdeusteiu.com
James Castle / Walker Evans
wordplay, signs and symbols
MAY 4 AUGUST 11, 2006
CATALOGUE WITH ESSAY BY STEPHEN WESTFALL
Knoedler & Company
E S TA B L I S H E D 1846
19 EAST 70 STREET NEW YORK NEW YORK 10021
TEL 212 794-0550 FAX 212 772-6932
WWW.KNOEDLERGALLERY.COM
Art and politics
Danish duo plans Iranian revolution
Parallel Action will travel to the Middle East this autumn
LONDON. They failed to oust
US military forces from
Guantanamo Bay by assault-
ing them with Beethovens
Third Symphony (The Art
Newspaper, January 2006,
p32) but, undaunted, the
Danish artists group Parallel
Action is turning its sights on
Iran, with the aim of instigat-
ing another cultural revolution.
Headed by Thomas
Altheimer, a former actor, and
a colleague who goes by the
name of Nielsen, the duo has
received funding from the
Danish Arts Council to travel
to Iran this October. There
they plan to engage in con-
versations and debates with
other artists, students, clerics
and activists.
The group says it plans to
spark a Second Iranian
Revolution using the secret
contents of a metal box, previ-
ously used in a similar project
in Iraq during the lead-up to the
elections in January 2004.
There, the box was meant to
hold Democracy, but its new
contents will only be revealed
when the box is opened in the
streets of Tehran.
The project is the result
of a series of discussions in
March in Washington, DC,
at think tanks and diplomat-
ic organisations such as the
Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, the
Brookings Institute, and the
Washington Institute for
Near East Policy, followed
by meetings with govern-
ment officials from the
National Security Council
and the State Department.
Altheimer and Nielsen
vowed to suspend future
attacks on Guantanamo and
take care of Iran, if the
US would pledge to shut
down its detention facilities
in Cuba.
This bargain seems to
show some results now,
says Altheimer, referring to
comments made to the press
last month by the US State
Department spokesman Sean
McCormack that at some
point in the future, wed like
nothing better than to close
down Guantanamo.
If his particular brand of art
Parallel Action at Brookings, the oldest think-tank in the US
Art or publicity stunt?
Unilever withdraws gay
art sponsorship
COPENHAGEN. Unilever, the
Anglo-Dutch company that
makes Omo washing powder
has withdrawn from a spon-
sorship deal with Danish artist
Flemming Rolighed, fearing
he would present them as
anti-homosexual.
The company had
announced it would give him
70 packages of Omo for a work
of art. But, the artist says that
having seen what I made with
other brand names, the deci-
sion was reversed. Mr
Roligheds work has included a
piece in which he changed the
brand name Cocio, a choco-
late milk drink, to Cock and
Toblerone to Tobehomo.
We were afraid, that he
would create a piece that would
make it look as if the multina-
tional Unilever is prejudiced
against homosexuals, said
brand manager Gitte Matzen.
Their suspicions were cor-
rect: the artist purchased
dozens of boxes of the washing
powder, which he piled in a
phallic tower for a display in
Aros Kunstmuseum in Aarhus;
each box was labelled Homo.
Ms Matzen denies that
Unilever has problems with
gay people. We are living in
the 21st century and we all
have to wash our clothes, she
says. Commenting on
Roligheds work of art, she
said: He got his PR stunt.
Clemens Bomsdorf
Ho-ho: Homo Omo art