The cost of continuing education is a critical factor for young people in the UK considering their futures. Since 2010 Higher Education institutions in the UK can charge up to £9K fees per year. Added to the debt incurred from student loans, many young people face debts of around £45K as a result of completing an undergraduate degree. What is the impact of this debt on young people in the UK?
Day After Debt (UK) was a long-term collaborative art project by the artist Ahmet Öğüt, addressing the significance of student debt. For the British Art Show 8, artists Liam Gillick, Susan Hiller and Goshka Macuga were invited by Öğüt to design sculptures that function as collection points for public contributions to a student loan debt relief campaign.
The three bespoke money boxes were installed in civic spaces around the four cities of British Art Show 8, generating income which was redistributed through the Jubilee Debt Campaign.
Jubilee Debt are a UK charity campaigning internationally to challenge debt and it’s damaging impact on communities. For Day After Debt, they used the funds raised to support a campaign against student debt in the UK.
As part of the project Öğüt worked with lawyer Daniel McClean to develop a ‘Letter of Agreement’ between the artists and potential future owners, so that all present and future proceeds collected by the sculptures will go to the Jubilee Debt campaign.
The exhibition tour dates for British Art Show 8 were:
LEEDS
Leeds Art Gallery
9 October 2015 – 10 January 2016
EDINBURGH
Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Talbot Rice Gallery, University of Edinburgh, and Inverleith House, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh
13 February – 8 May 2016
NORWICH
Norwich University of the Arts and Norwich Castle Museum and Art Gallery
24 June – 4 September 2016
SOUTHAMPTON
John Hansard Gallery and Southampton City Art Gallery
8 October 2016 – 14 January 2017
Öğüt has had solo exhibitions at Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2015), Chisenhale Gallery, London (2015), The Blackwood Gallery at University of Toronto, Canada (2014), Checkpoint Helsinki, Finland (2013) and Delfina Foundation, London (2013). He has participated in the 19th Biennale of Sydney, Australia, the 8th Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale, Performa 13 and exhibitions at Neuer Berliner Kunstverein, Berlin, Germany, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France, Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art, Vienna, Austria (2013). Öğüt is a founding member of the Silent University, an autonomous knowledge exchange platform led by refugees, asylum seekers and migrants.
Ahmet Öğüt’s Day After Debt (UK), with artists Liam Gillick, Susan Hiller and Goshka Macuga, in collaboration with Jubilee Debt Campaign, is co-commissioned by Create and Lafayette Anticipation – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, Paris.