Photo and text Hege Vadstein and Paul Brady
A bottle of urine from an Amazon worker, train schedules of privatization measures, and a notepad listing suspicious and neoliberal behavior are among the items exhibited at London’s most interesting museum.
At Lewisham Shopping Centre, we are stopped by a TV salesman hanging outside his shop, asking us what has drawn us to such out-of-the-way places. He heard us speaking Norwegian and tells us that he has visited Norway himself, specifically Sunndalsøra. When we reply that we have come to London solely to visit the Museum of Neoliberalism, he stares at us in disbelief before bursting into laughter.
It was, of course, just a joke. No, we reply, so he repeats the destination into a remote control, which quickly brings up a YouTube clip about the museum on one of the TV screens. Then he laughs even harder and exclaims that he would also like to visit this museum himself eventually.
We hope he doesn’t wait too long, because as avid readers of the newsletters from spellingmistakescostlives.com we have learned the tragic news that the legendary museum that Darren Cullen has built together with Gavin Grindon must move out of its premises right after the summer.
After wandering a bit in the nearby areas until the time we have booked our entry, we enter the ultra-compact museum, which through photo collages, automated tableaux, crime maps, matrix printer outputs, and infographics conveys knowledge about neoliberalism and its consequences in an exemplary precise and satirical manner.
The museum itself can be done in about five steps (and maybe 45 minutes or more if you delve into the details), and inside awaits the museum shop. For those familiar with spellingmistakescostlives.com online store, it will come as no surprise that this is an exceptionally well-stocked museum shop – or rather info shop, as it perhaps more closely resembles. For the undersigned, an almost uncontrollable need has built up over a couple of years to acquire as many of the incredibly cool things that continually spring from Cullen’s impressively productive hand and imaginative mind. The shame of consumption hits us, and it feels almost a bit relieving to mask the insatiable must-have urge under the guise of supporting this exemplary project as we pile the counter with a large stack of postcards, t-shirts, buttons, stickers, books, prints, pamphlets, etc.
Behind the counter of the museum shop lies a rather chaotic office and storage area. A guy who bears a striking resemblance to the artist and activist behind the legendary Hell Bus project has just finished carrying in and stacking a number of cardboard boxes that are clearly heavy with books. ‘Excuse me, do you work here?’ one of us calls out to get the attention of the museum staff. Cullen is easy to talk to, and while he enters prices and stuffs our haul into paper bags and envelopes, he enthusiastically tells us that we are the first to buy his newly arrived book about the Hell Bus-project – a project we have an intense desire to exhibit in Norway.
Time flies and the topics are many during the conversation, and we touch on Norwegian, English, and German issues regarding subvertising (key types and legislation), Palestine and freedom of expression (Cullen’s participation at last year’s Werbepause in Berlin), climate and the frantic bunker building by the rich (but what will they do when the systems are down and they can’t use their credit cards? Or, as Cullen points out, they will never reach the bunkers because they will be stuck in L.A.’s traffic chaos.)
With a high level of activity often comes a surplus of odd experiences. When the conversation revolves around experiences from subvertising, Cullen tells how one of his anti-military poster campaigns received so much positive attention that the British military museum wanted to buy the poster and inquired about the price. For a while, he was unsure what to answer – it would have been nice to finally earn some pounds, but he concluded that the price should be 1300 pounds, which was the same amount he had spent printing the posters. In this way, he somewhat got the British defense to fund his criticism of it.
Situationism and punk are also among the topics we touch upon. Cullen sees how punk has also been absorbed by capitalist practices. Although many consider the Sex Pistols to be punk pioneers, he views them more as an early boy band and chuckles when he tells how the band now appears as decoration on a bank card. He adds that the term ‘punk’ was recently attempted to be bought by the brewery Punk – a company Cullen finds criticizable as they treat their workers poorly and collaborate with Israel. There will likely be no more Punk IPA for us after this lesson.
Cullen follows us outside for some photos for the report, and we ask him what will happen next. Fortunately, the future of the museum does not look as bleak as previously feared. He has a location in sight, so he might be able to reopen the museum by the end of the year. We assumed that gentrification and rising rents were forcing him out of the premises after 5 years of operation. But although gentrification plays a role here, the reason is even more perfectly ironic. The building is to be demolished to make way for luxury apartments – a fact further complemented by the establishment of a food station in the premises next to the museum just before these plans came to light. The beautiful facade sign with the museum logo – a globe icon with a trademark R – will, in the best spirit of satire, be allowed to stay until the bitter end, as a monument to the destructive forces of neoliberalism.
We encourage everyone to seize the opportunity and visit the museum if they are passing through London. Alternatively, support the project by shopping in the online store or donating for the good cause.
Afterword written some months later
In his previous newsletter, Cullen writes that he still hasn’t found a place to reopen the museum, which was closed on September 15th. Cullen has also faced setbacks in other areas: a foreign troll factory has tried to make it look like he has spread racist street art.*
*) https://www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/single-post/russian-disinformation
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