The King of Letna
This edition of the Friday Ripple is especially dedicated to Michael Jackson, and to the Czech Republic’s bizarre forthcoming national tribute to the late pop singer...
We’re getting a Michael Jackson statue in Prague in 2010!? Yes, it’s true. A small group of Michael Jackson fans have received the official support of the Mayor of Prague, Pavel Bem, to build a statue of Michael Jackson on Letna Hill.
This is a rather controversial issue: on one side, the official statue supporters’ website assures us that they, “expect strong interest and positive response from the public, especially young people”; meanwhile, opinion polls on major websites like Lidovky.cz suggest that there are ten times more people who don’t want the statue to go up. Amongst the objections appearing on internet protest groups are: that Michael Jackson has little or no connection with Czech culture, that the statue has very little artistic merit, and, that putting a statue of a foreign pop singer there shows an incredible ignorance of Letna’s social and cultural history.
I’d like to put forward the suggestion that a Michael Jackson statue is actually totally appropriate for Letna, and, that it’s in keeping with a long tradition of public art on Letna hill.
Let’s take a quick look back at the history of art on Letna in the last 50 years. The most famous work of art to appear on Letna was, of course, the giant statue of Josef Stalin which stood on the hill from 1955-1962. This was a huge, ugly sculpture in the socialist-realist style, whose sole purpose was to promote the ideology of the ruling party of the time. This statue made very clear what art on Letna should be for: official propaganda.
But, in the 1990s in Prague, things went a bit wrong. Particularly in 1991, City Hall approved the famous Metronome installation. Obviously this was a terrible mistake, because the Metronome is a very clever, socially and politically relevant artwork, and so it clearly does not belong there. The later 1990s on Letna were all about correcting this mistake – especially by making sure that more appropriate artworks appeared near Metronome – like, an advertisement for a Michael Jackson concert in 1996, and a big picture of Vaclav Klaus’s face in 1998.
But even until quite recently, real art was existing, uncontrolled, on Letna. Until recently the Artwall gallery was allowed to continue the appalling practice of having serious exhibitions of respected artists on the hill. Fortunately this ended in 2008, when the Art Wall gallery hosted an exhibition by the Guma Guar group of Czech artists, which made fun of Prague City Hall’s alleged close links to organised crime. City Hall quickly shut down the gallery and cancelled their lease. Some people would call that political censorship, but others would point out that it was a proper reassertion of Letna’s artistic traditions: finally, it was once again clear that Letna will not tolerate art which contradicts the official messages of the ruling party.
Even last year, there was the risk of more serious art appearing on Letna, in the form of the approved design for the new Czech National Library by the late Jan Kaplicky, the Czech Republic’s most internationally-respected modern architect. Fortunately, President Vaclav Klaus said he personally didn’t like the building, and famously threatened to throw himself in front of the bulldozers if construction started. After this brave intervention, the Kaplicky Library project was cancelled, and Letna could get back on the long march towards artistic mediocrity.
The proposed new Michael Jackson statue represents a great leap forward in this mission. Just like the Stalin monument, this is a proper piece of cheap, valueless, pseudo-art, which celebrates non-Czech culture, and underlines contemporary official policy about what art is supposed to be here.
Regarding official arts policy today, in 2008 Milan Richter, the Prague Councillor for culture, provided a great insight into official City Hall policy on art, when he said that theatres in Prague producing respected cultural work should not receive any more public support than commercial theatres which produce cheap and lucrative novelty performances of interest only to foreign tourists. The implicit message was clear: art does not have any value except for economic value.
And, on this understanding of art, Michael Jackson brought a lot of value to Prague. Specifically, when he played a concert here in 1996 he brought a lot of money to the city. He is, therefore, one of the greatest and most relevant artists this city has ever seen.
In the 1950s, the purpose of art in Prague was to strengthen communist thought. In 2010, the purpose of art in Prague is to make money. What could be a better way to express this new view of art, than with a statue of a pop singer who once played here 14 years ago? A statue of Michael Jackson is the best expression of official ideology to appear on Letna since the Stalin “meat queue”.
Personally I welcome this thoughtful tribute to Letna tradition. Now, if we can just get rid of the Metronome, art in Letna will be fully restored to its traditional role. And really, it shouldn’t be too difficult to remove the Metronome. After all, the Blanka Tunnel construction project has already achieved four tunnel collapses in this area of the city in less than two years - which appears to be a record in the entire developed world. How difficult can it be to make sure the fifth collapse happens right under the Metronome? Only then, will Letna be fully ready for a statue of the one man who truly represents the Czech capital in 2010: Michael Jackson.
Yes, it's satire. For a serious opinion, you might want to check the following week's show...
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
If you came to this page just for the Michael Jackson statue satire: welcome!
This is the weekly promo page of Radio Wave’s Friday Ripple, and its main purpose is to persuade you to load up the Radio Wave Jukebox right now, for the streaming-on-demand version of the radio show.
The Friday Ripple is a 2-hour weekly show, dedicated to the idea that much of the most exciting alternative music today comes from outside the Western world. This particular edition was first broadcast on Friday 9.7.2010, 5pm-7pm. The Michael Jackson feature is not typical for this show; I simply couldn’t resist joining in the nonsense. Hopefully the irony is obvious, and no-one will be offended...
The whole show is streaming right now on the Radio Wave Jukebox. Apart from the Jackson statue rant, it’s packed with business-as-usual Friday Ripple stuff: hip hop from Chile, South Africa, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone; reggae from France, Zimbabwe and Brazil; Jewish funk and Latino-Texan funk; Portuguese kuduro... and some Michael Jackson covers too! Yes, I actually do like Michael Jackson’s music. You’ll find two classic 1980s Jackson covers on the show: Billie Jean, as performed by Jamaican-English digital dancehall singer Shinehead; and a Yoruba-language version of Don’t Stop Till You Get Enough by Nigerian disco star Bola Bimbola. And, just to show there’s no anti-pop prejudice here, fans of catchy mainstream pop music will also find a great Portuguese kuduro remix of Beyonce, and tracks by two of the 21st Century’s hottest pop artists worldwide: Nigeria’s P Square and Tanzania’s Dully Sykes.
A cocktail of pop and provocation, global style: find it right now on the Radio Wave Jukebox, stored under Friday Ripple > 9.7.2010. The full playlist looks like this:
Ana Tijoux – 1977 (Oveja Negra/Nacional)
Die Antwoord - Super Evil ($O$)
Mix n Blend feat. Crosby - Outta Town (African Dope)
Shinehead - Billy Jean (Ripple remix)
Shinehead - Billy Jean (Virgin)
Bola Bimbola - Sunmomi Famomi (EMI)
Eedris Abdulkareem - Jaga Jaga (Kennis Music)
Modenine – Badman (Redeye Musik)
Abraham Inc - Tweet Tweet (live) (Table Pounding Records)
Grupo Fantasma - Telaran'a (Featuring Curt Kirkwood)
Caribou – Odesa (City Slang/V2)
Pastor Mbhobho – Ayobaness (Out Here)
DJ Tuco - Disco Kicks (DJ Edgar Baile Funk remix) (Meanbucket)
Crookers - Birthday Bash (Feat. The Very Best, Marina & Dargen) (Southern Fried Records)
Fever Ray - Now's the Only Time I Know (J-Wow mix) (self-released)
J-Wow feat. Beyonce - Diva (W.O.W. mix) (self-released)
Baja & Dry Eye Crew - Bondo Kallay (self-released)
Nomadic Wax Allstars & Funk Nouveau World Cup 2010 (edit) (Nomadic Wax)
Sai Sai - Roleur l'lheure (R.A.R.E. Sound)
Rantoboko – War (Juju)
Afroreggae - Nenhum Motivo Explica a Guerra (Mr Bongo)
Ska Cubano - Soy Campesino (Casino Sounds)
Dully Sykes – Hi (Dhahabu Records)
P Square - E No Easy (Square Music)
SoCalled - Ich bin a Border by Mayn Vayb (JDub)
