Cork aims to lift spirits with gag on the ‘R-word’
Cork’s first citizen, Lord Mayor Cllr Dara Murphy, has signed an official decree inviting people not to use the word 'recession’ for the next 24 hours.
People have been invited to eliminate the R-word from emails, workplaces and their everyday conversations. They have even been encouraged to invent their own new terms or phrases such as the “pre-boom”.
The move is part of a Danish art collective’s project, commissioned by National Sculpture Factory, for the Cork Midsummer Festival.
Conceptual artist group Superflex approached Cork City Council with the idea.
Mr Murphy said it was a quirky but wonderful suggestion that could help people be more positive.
“We are all sick and tired of the recession, and all this doom and gloom,” Mr Murphy said. “We are asking the people of Cork, for one day, not to use the word recession.
“It may introduce a bit of positivity and could represent a turning point in the economic future of our city and country.”
Danish Ambassador to Ireland, Niels Pultz is the first co-signatory of the decree and he has also encouraged Danish nationals living in Cork to ban the use of the R-word today.
Superflex interventionist practice deals with economic markets, power structures, self-organisation and environmentalism rather than discrete works of art.
Its members will give a talk about their art and this project at the Crawford Art Gallery Lecture Theatre on Emmet Place, Cork at 1pm tomorrow.
