Editorial: Can We Separate Art From Politics?

We reached out to VÆB, who this year will represent Iceland at Eurovision, held in Basel, Switzerland between May 13-17th. We wanted to interview them and to have their feel-good young and fun faces on our cover. Asked by their press agent, Rúnar Freyr Gíslason, on whether or not the questions we’d ask them would be political, we told him that this would be unavoidable given the context of this and last year’s Eurovision, but we would not put any pressure on them if they did not want to answer such questions in an interview. Subsequently, we asked repeatedly if an interview and photoshoot could be scheduled, but Rúnar Freyr claimed their schedule was too full to accommodate that.

Last year’s Eurovision was shrouded in controversy, and as much as most of the artists participating, along with the majority of the state broadcasters who make up the EBU want it to, it continues to be so. A part of the debate has revolved around why the EBU moved so swiftly to eject Russia from Eurovision in 2022, following its invasion of Ukraine, while the ongoing and ever-escalating situation in Gaza has not prompted a similar response towards Israel. Sure, these two things aren’t identical, but they are not direct opposites either, leading many to feel the situation to be at least hypocritical, and the stance that Eurovision isn’t political, laughable.

Perhaps there are moments in history where we can wholly separate art from politics and dwell on the former as pure aestheticism; enjoy art for art’s sake. Somehow that only seems possible in a world of comfort and security, a world, if it ever existed, we do not live in right now. This means that in many contexts, Eurovision included, the decision to avoid politics becomes political, and Iceland’s decision to participate becomes — even though no one responsible wants to acknowledge it — a political stance.

For more, read our cover feature here. JTS

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