Press Release: CIRCA Presents Vivienne Westwood, Do Not Buy A Bomb
MARKING HER 80TH BIRTHDAY IN PICCADILLY CIRCUS, VIVIENNE WESTWOOD DELIVERS A VIDEO MESSAGE TO THE WORLD
(London, Piccadilly Circus) 8 April 2021 ➳ On her 80th Birthday, CIRCA presents a short film by Vivienne Westwood. Available to watch online – and screened on the Piccadilly Lights at 20:21BST, the ten minute film ‘Do Not Buy A Bomb’ created especially by Westwood, depicts the punk icon performing a rewritten rendition of ‘Without You’ from My Fair Lady.
Offering a stark warning of societal indifference to the looming environmental catastrophes, a cry against the arms trade and its link to climate change, Westwood ponders an England without people and challenges audiences to ‘Tell the children the truth’. She sings ‘What a fool I was, what a dominated fool / To think that you were the Earth and the sky…’
A special limited-edition print by Vivienne Westwood titled ‘Do Not Buy A Bomb’ created especially in support of the #CIRCAECONOMY is available to buy for £100 (excl.VAT) on the CIRCA website until 8 May 2021.
Vivienne Westwood says: I have a plan 2 save the World. Capitalism is a war economy + war is the biggest polluter, therefore Stop War + change economy 2 fair distribution of wealth at the same time: NO MANS LAND. Let’s be clear, U + I can’t stop war just like that. But we can stop arms production + that would halt climate change cc + financial Crash. Long term this will stop war. April 8th is my 80th birthday. Please read the Manifesto + Diaries + follow the playing cards 2 find out how life changing the new economy will be. Read over + again 2 realize how simple + radical the plan is, then U will change your pattern of life + by talking U will support me in the fight. One day soon U will say the right thing 2 the right person at the right time make a difference. Put this in your features + columns, + on social media – as journalists U could become activists. I have always combined fashion with activism: the one helps the other. Maybe fashion can Stop War. ‘Buy Less Choose Well Make it Last’ Don’t buy a car Don’t buy a bomb! Follow me on climaterevolution.co.uk. ‘Get a life!’. Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) is a UK-based organisation working to end the international arms trade. We support CAAT: caat.org.uk
Josef O’Connor, Artistic Director, CIRCA, quote: “Vivienne Westwood has a long history of addressing issues including climate change, civil liberties and nuclear disarmament. Provoking others to think afresh and reflect or consider their own actions, we are honoured to provide a platform to this British icon on the Piccadilly Lights screen and celebrate her 80th Birthday in style.”
NOTES TO EDITORS
ABOUT VIVIENNE WESTWOOD
Vivienne Westwood is one of the most influential cultural figures of the 20th and 21st centuries. Renowned for revolutionising fashion through a practice that fused history, politics and rebellion, she transformed the runway into a platform for activism, using her global profile to campaign for environmental protection, civil liberties, human rights and peace.
Emerging from London’s punk movement of the 1970s, Westwood challenged conventions of taste, identity and power with a body of work that reshaped contemporary fashion. From her early collaborations with Malcolm McLaren to her internationally celebrated collections, she drew upon centuries of art, literature and political thought to create a visual language that was both radically subversive and deeply informed by cultural history. Throughout her career, she remains committed to the belief that culture and education can inspire meaningful social change.
ABOUT CIRCA
Created by artist Josef O’Connor, CIRCA commissions a different artist each month to present new ideas that consider our world circa 2021. Each artist is invited to create a new work for Europe’s largest screen that offers an innovative and exciting way for people to engage with art, both outside and online, in a safe and socially distanced way. Westwood’s work will pause Piccadilly’s adverts at 20:21BST, a new time for 2021. This special commission follows acclaimed messages by Patti Smith, Tony Cokes, and James Barnor who is currently showing every evening throughout April. .
Visitors to Piccadilly Circus can connect their headphones to WWW.CIRCA.ART and receive a fully immersive audio-visual experience. The website also streams the artwork every evening at 20:21BST and hosts supporting content alongside past archives of CIRCA commissioned work from artists including Patti Smith, Tony Cokes and Ai Weiwei.
SOCIAL MEDIA
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PRESS OFFICE
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