Ofar - Speakers Corner at the Tate Modern

Tate Modern, Forecourt Saturday - 6th July 2002
12pm onwards
Admission: Free

Ofar has responded to the clichéd question about art, "What does it say to

you?" by making that the very unambiguous starting point of his work.

The installation / environment took place on 6th July outside the entrance 

to the Tate Modern on the Thames Embankment and was active for a 

period of five hours. 

Ten public speakers were involved plus a dozen or so 

seasoned hecklers. Several hundred visitors to the Tate Modern passed 

through the artwork many of them experiencing the free speech and 

inter-action. The artist spent time encouraging people to take part, observing

and participating in events, and also chatting with participants after their 

experience.

'My art can only be experienced by inter-acting with one or other of the 

speakers. I was pleased with the high level of participation and the range 

and quality of the positive responses'.

'The members of the public who chose solely to observe others inter-acting 

were not experiencing the artwork. They were simply tourists - mere

by-standers'. 

'You will have a far greater experience out side than you will in side'.

Comments;

"Rather than a light being switched off, it is definitely one being turned on."

"The art out side was definitely. Challenging"

"You would have to be stupid not to understand this."

"A common statement is 'I was just saying what I was thinking', you don't 

always say what you are thinking because of your surroundings and 

company etc."

SPEAKERS PAGE

Nine of the Ten speakers spoke on their chosen topic and more or less treated the event as they would have done at Hyde Park on a Sunday. Tony Allen however was my confederate and we had an agreed agenda that he would deliberately engage passers-by in discussions about their understanding of art in general and their opinions of the art on view at the Tate Modern.   Tony's Journal