welcome to mr democracy

To all you lawyers out there!

  Welcome to Mr Democracy, the story of a British artist who set off to get a written constitution for the UK made. Understanding the changing balance of power in the world, and with a nod to Britain’s ‘democratic’ ventures across the world, he chose to get it written in China, and ship it back to the UK.

read more on this great venture of Oliver Walker on mrdemocracy.wordpress.com

Oliver walker : My country, the UK, doesn’t have a written constitution, but we do enjoy a thriving trade with China, aswell as a notion of exporting democracy. Seeing as you can get anything and everything made in China, I want to get a constitution drawn up over there. Democracy is a late convert to globalisation, and I intend to bring the two closer together. Or perhaps it isn’t so late. In fact, the UK has had a strong notion of the import and export of ‘democracy’ for many years, one it continues to foster today. It is in this tradition that I wish to develop a constitution, or ‘basic law’ for the UK, in China, a country finding a new role for itself in the world.

I have been wanting to produce a project in China for a few years now, and last year I had this idea. At first I wanted to deal more directly with the changes happening in and around China itself. But I thought there was something in looking back at where I come from, and exploring it this way.

I met Oliver in Berlin this year. We had long nights of talks on his plan and how to accompish it, it was really an amzing venture he made possible without a notion of Chinese and no experience in China before. I think he addresses a very interesting angle to look at current worldpolitics, away from the stereotyped ways of consuming the world politics through the media we get offered. He explores it through a historic unsolved issue, takes this challenge with both hands and shows us a great story.

When I was in Xiamen last month and went to visit the touristic Guluangyu island, I got a a small historic memory of how the British Colonists would introduce opium to the Chinese and the beginning of long dark years of trade in coolies and opium to benefit themselves. Constitutions were not a topic at that time. 

Oliver should have been born earlier;)