A controversial art installation re-running live, unedited television coverage of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks has drawn sharp condemnation from local figures who spearheaded Dorset's relief efforts to New York following the tragic day in which almost 3000 people lost their lives.
The "9/11 Watch Party," organised by political arts group Verdurin at the Wild Boscombe Cafe as part of the Adam Curtis Party Conference, asks attendees to surrender their mobile phones to re-watch hours of continuous real-time news footage. Event curator Pierre d’Alancaisez defended the screening as a serious examination of television media as "our hyperreality’s fundamental building block" and an opportunity to analyse how media shapes public perception.
However, the event has sparked outrage among figures with direct ties to Ground Zero. Local councillor and journalist Andy Martin, who organised a charter flight out of Bournemouth Airport in November 2001 carrying 100 passengers and a £40,000 donation raised by Dorset firefighters for New York rescue workers, branded the installation a "grotesque spectacle".
"This is not a respectful way to pay respects to the victims of 9/11," Martin said, urging organisers to call off the event. "It’s a disgraceful thing to do. I speak as someone who’s been to Ground Zero when it was still smouldering away and hadn’t even been cleared".
Popular local figure and former Bath Travel managing director Stephen Bath, who helped coordinate regional relief and travel initiatives, also expressed deep reservations over commercialising the crisis. Following the attacks, Bath Travel absorbed heavy losses by issuing £100,000 in direct refunds to 500 passengers.
In November 2002, Bath chartered a historic Boeing 747 jumbo jet carrying 420 passengers from Bournemouth to New York—the heaviest and most populated aircraft ever to take off from Bournemouth Airport's runway.
Reflecting on the Boscombe installation, Bath voiced concern over packaging historical trauma into entertainment. "I'm sad that they might in some way glamorise or make entertainment out of it," Bath said, noting that nearly 2,800 people died that day. "If it brings the tragedy... to people's memories, maybe it's not all bad, but we must remember….it was the greatest crime of my lifetime.”
Their criticisms echo Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole councillor Simon McCormack, who warned that staging real-time news coverage of victims' final moments "crosses a line and risks turning tragedy into spectacle.”
Share