The Open Letter

Dear Mr. Looney,

Referring back to my letter of 30 November 2020, in which I presented a detailed analysis of why the company should be dissolved due to its axiological insolvency, I would like to return to that argument once more – yet now reinforced by an alternative intended to replace the activity you and your colleagues continue to consider beneficial.

Too often we fail to imagine that the world could be different – far better. And in searching for more harmonious forms of that world, I propose, in exchange for the dissolution of the Company, its aesthetic analogue: an essential-semantic equivalent that reflects its nature in the critical mirror of artistic and philosophical inquiry – namely, the works of art I have created over the past years while studying the Corporation from within. This was a creative underground, which I successfully left two years ago as part of the Expression of Interest programme.

Fifteen years of underground creative work – from headquarters to offshore – accompanied by the sacrifices art demands in the mode of “here and now,” in order to produce works stripped of ornamentation, grounded in strict minimalism, and shaped by the information I had meticulously investigated, analysed, and examined throughout all these years. These works are not intended for the art market. They exist to seek answers to the ontological questions posed by the very environment you have constructed. Their exchange for the cessation of the Company’s activities would allow bp to undergo a metaphysical transition into a radically different, axiologically meaningful form of existence – into a wholly new, transformed state. An exchange more than equivalent.

The world will not be saved by political crises, technological challenges, or the business that fuels them, but by beauty.

Yes, this may sound utopian. And yet, although I myself am far from utopian maxims, I hope that the works might inspire you – and those who stand behind you – to reflect: is the world you shape through your decisions truly as beautiful as you claim it to be?

Speaking with complete candour, I must note that my single indelible impression from all my years working at bp is this: despite your efforts to create a comfortable environment and social protection for the employees of this vast empire, I did not meet a single person who was genuinely happy in their work for it, or who derived true pleasure from this activity. Perhaps the company was not created to bring people joy? Empires in general – and yours in particular – are not the most suitable environments for human flourishing, and the proximity to the infernal substance known as oil only intensifies this impossibility of happiness.

Can we change anything? I believe we can. I have made an effort – an individual one, available only to an artist. Will you be able to make yours?

This is a case of a difficult dichotomy: on one side, the Free Artist; on the other, the head of a powerful empire. Your decision would become a test of your willingness to change something in this unbelievably delirious world – and, at the very least, a reflection of your attitude toward art, which at times requires decisions no less difficult.

Best regards,

Niyaz Mamedov

25 October, 2022
1.05 a.m. UTC+3