POLITICIANS, THE POWER OF ART, AND WHY YOU SHOULD VOTE 

 [This text was first published by Massive Attack in their program during the festival curated at the Downs in Bristol on Sept the 3rd 2016] 

There are various responses artists can have when faced with injustice and the desire to take action in a world such as ours—especially when bombs seem to go off every second both afar and next door and when corrupted democracies operate without any real mandate from the people. I understand the feeling of powerlessness and in times like these artists are faced with a question: how do I contribute to making the world a better place? 

I’ve talked to several musicians and many believe that we should support politicians we believe in to encourage political change. I respect and understand that position. Any artist who finds coherence connecting their music, their videos, their live shows to a political agenda is completely entitled to do so, it is a personal choice after all. But as an artist myself, I choose to never associate my work publicly to anything political. 

I need to make a distinction: I’m talking about my political engagement as an artist. As a citizen, I have opinions about politics (which I discuss with my friends and family), I inform myself, and I vote. In this day and age I believe it’s irresponsible to tell anybody not to vote. I am part of the generation who saw the leader of the French extreme right nationalist party, (FN) Le Pen, rise to the second round of the presidential election in 2002 in France when I was still too young to vote. I demonstrated my feeling of powerlessness in the streets alongside all my friends. From that traumatic experience we learned our lesson: vote, or irresponsible extremists will take over your country. 

That’s my reason for voting now at each election and maybe it differs from yours but that’s democracy. The real issue, however, is that in reality democracies have become ‘dollar-democracies’. Politicians are not interested in ideas or public service. They are rising on the ladder of success just like any show-business aspirant would with an eye to making millions as soon as they walk out the door. I really wish that for an artist to support a politician it meant genuinely endorsing a just cause for humanity, but I’m afraid artists only become part of a PR plan for another money-driven political show. How many artists and writers in the past have supported politicians and ended up disappointed? It is a slippery road, bound to disappoint.

Why is a book so life changing? Why can a live concert be such a fundamentally transformative experience? Because art acts in a corner of society where nobody else goes: the realm of ideas and imagination. Artists have the possibility to address that part of us that is always alive and still malleable: the child, the true birthplace of evil and good, the root of our humanity. Politicians de facto only work on the surface. Their solutions are temporary Band-Aids on a wound that can only be healed from the inside. Art however preaches directly to the fundamental, the universal, the DNA of each individual, the only place where change and hope is still possible.

Social and political change starts with personal change. I don’t need a politician to prove that my work has meaning, I believe my work stands much stronger on its own and is already part of a movement. Every song written today contains all the songs that have been written before. Newton didn’t discover gravity all by himself. He let all the research and knowledge of his predecessors lead him to his conclusion. What is true for scientists is also true for artists. We are not alone, we are part of a community already.

Humanity was born yesterday. Even your great great great great grand-parent were here just an hour ago. Like the rotation of the Earth on its own axis, change is too small, too incremental, for our eyes to see. Everyone who tells you otherwise is a charlatan - and is probably trying to sell you something. Isn’t that a good enough cause to be living by? All we have is here, now and each other.

When creating a song, a book, a painting what are artists really doing? To paraphrase novelist Kurt Voneghut : for one moment, artists are creating “the world exactly as it should be”. That is the real power of the artists, and I believe in this power.