Labour Unions – The Curse of Kerala?

TechnoparkToday.com(April, 2015): .What would compel an artist to destroy his own work? To destroy a work of art he lovingly pored over for weeks, months? But artist Waswo X Waswo(website – http://www.waswoxwaswo.net/), who had participated in the recently-concluded Kochi-Muziris Biennale, did just that.

Read the incident in his own words – “Destroying an art installation rather than paying the high rates of extortion Keralan so-called “unions” charge to load delivery vehicles. The ‎Kochi-Muziris Biennale ends and many of the same artists who suffered exorbitant demands by the unions of Kerala to unload trucks, faced even more exorbitant demands to load them once again.

For anyone not familiar with this situation, the unions basically function as mobs, surrounding a truck and refusing anyone to load or unload until their demands are met…asking as much as 60,000 to 80,000 rupees to load one truck. Intimidation and threats of violence and property damage are employed. The only way I could get them to even start a negotiation was to threaten to destroy my entire show rather than ship it.

Watch the Video :-

This video shows the early morning destruction of a part of our installation. Thankfully it started a process of negotiation and an eventual agreement on more equitable terms. The Biennale was a special target for the unions, who asked as much as 20 times the regular rates. What is this exploitation of art? And how does the media feed a notion that artists make crores of rupees with each artwork they produce?”

This is a serious question to the so called most educated state in our country – the so called god’s own country.