by Magnifico
Tue Jul 7th, 2009 at 02:14:52 PM EST
The fourth and vacant plinth in London's Trafalgar Square is now open for people to stand on and do anything they want for one hour at a time. It is part of an arts project called: One & Other.
The plinthers are chosen by lottery. I would enter and if randomly selected, would stand on the plinth myself and be willing to hold a nice European Tribune sign as part of my time, but unfortunately I am not British and only people living in the UK may apply.
So seeing that I won't be travelling to London, I think it would be neat if one of the British ETers would sign up for a plinth standing and hold up a big ET sign complete with the site's URL from the majesty of the plinth. Or maybe, a Europe is Doomed™ sign as a caution snark to all.
Here's some background from The New York Times, Briefly Ascending to the Spotlight, Britons Take Their Place Among Giants.
Plinthers, as they are being called, are allotted specific slots and expected to show up on time, even if it is, say, 2 a.m. or raining. They must spend the hour alone, but are otherwise allowed to do whatever they feel like doing, within reason.
While the One & Other website cautions the project "may contain offensive content", so far the plinthers, as you can see, seem fairly mundane.
Trafalgar Square is a place of patriotism and past glory, of dead men posing in perpetuity on enormous pedestals. But on Monday, it became a place where Suren Seneviratne, a 22-year-old disc jockey, stood atop a 26-foot-high plinth, wearing a homemade panda costume and hyperkinetically talking on the phone.
His remarks may not have been profound -- "I'm on the plinth!" he informed one caller, in an exchange caught by the microphone he was wearing -- but Mr. Seneviratne was making art. He was the seventh participant in "One & Other," a grand project that is meant to stretch the boundaries of sculpture by placing 2,400 people on the square's usually vacant fourth plinth, for an hour apiece, from now through Oct. 6.
"This is not about privilege, not about power, not about war or honoring the dead," said the artist, Antony Gormley. "It's about celebrating the living."
While the plinthers have been demure so far, I expect some will make political protests or statements, or quite possibly some attractive people may disrobe, for the sake of art, on top of the fourth plinth. But be warned — the 'No Sex Please, We're British' clause still holds.
They can even take their clothes off. "Nakedness is absolutely essential," Mr. Gormley said in an interview. "Nakedness is to art what the ball is to football."
How about sex? "No sex up there," he decreed. "Sex after art."
So, perhaps one lone ETer will brave the rain, sun, and/or pigeons of Trafalgar Square and become the EuroTrib Plinther. Any volunteers?
