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A gesture of solidarity, this is how the new launch of canned soup on Van Gogh’s Sunflowers was defined: the Just Stop Oil protest in London takes place just an hour after the sentencing of 2 years and 20 months in prison respectively for Phoebe Plummer and Anna Holland, both in their early twenties, who had protested in this way in 2022.
Van Gogh’s canvas “victim” of the defacement – in reality the painting was not damaged – is the same one at the center of the protest two years ago. The painting is on display at the National Gallery in London for a temporary exhibition. Activists also targeted another canvas by the Dutch artist, a different version of Sunflowers.
«Future generations will look at these prisoners knowing that they were on the right side of history»said Phil Green, one of those responsible for the new protest. Ludi Simpson (71), who also defaced one of the canvases, added: “We will be held accountable for our actions today and will face the full force of the law. When will fossil fuel executives and the politicians they bought be held accountable for the criminal harm they are imposing on every living thing?”.
25 Just Stop Oil activists detained in the United Kingdom
Plummer and Holland’s sentence is the latest of many that have affected Just Stop Oil activists in recent years, one of the many movements in Europe that try to raise awareness about climate change with striking gestures – such as protests in museums and disruptions of the streets with non-violent sit-ins – which however do not appear to be particularly effective.
Public opinion does not applaud similar operations and activists, even in an attempt to spread an important message, only make themselves hateful or difficult to understand. One of the two young people on trial had asked in 2022, after having glued herself to the wall under the smeared canvas, «How can art matter to you more than human life? How can a picture of thousands of families who can’t afford to buy or heat a can of soup like this be more important?”. However, the message does not filter beyond the soup that drips from the painting, we might say.
Indeed, the tightening of measures towards non-violent acts of protest, which in the end almost never cause actual damage, is a tool in the hands of governments to communicate that they are acting for collective security with measures that actually limit personal freedoms. and collective to express dissent. History will surely evaluate the actions of Just Stop Oil. In the meantime, the three new sunflower scoundrels could join their comrades in prison.
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