Creative Scotland defends controversial ‘experimental performance art’ funding

The Scottish Government’s arts agency has launched a wideranging defence of its decision to award almost £85,000 to a “hardcore” sex film project and praised the track record of the artist at the centre of the controversy.

Creative Scotland has insisted Leonie Rae Gasson’s proposed multi-screen film installation went through all of its proper channels and processes before her grant was signed off.

The defence was launched as the body said 90 per cent of its £84,555 funding award for the project had now been either withdrawn or clawed back. It said the applicant had incurred “contractually legitimate costs of £8,359, mainly to sub contracted freelancers” which would not be recovered.

The project was handed a separate award of £23,210 in august 2022 as part of its research and development phase. Creative Scotland said it had “no reason to seek to reclaim this award as the work was completed as set out in the approved application”.

Responding to a Holyrood probe into the funding award, Creative Scotland’s chief executive Iain Munro has praised Ms Gasson’s proposal as “a challenging, creatively ambitious piece of experimental performance art”. The quango insists that it did not give approval to the filming of “real sex” scenes for her project, describing the prospect as “unacceptable territory”. However, it is still refusing to publish Ms Gasson’s full application, citing legal advice and concerns about “the safety and wellbeing of those involved”.

Ms Gasson had launched online appeals for performers with “experience of sex work, particularly in porn contexts” to work on Rein when controversy flared over the explicit nature of the project, which she described as “an exploration of dyke sexuality” and “a magical, erotic journey through the Scottish countryside”.

Creative Scotland pulled the plug days after culture secretary Angus robertson said there was “no way” that it should have funded Rein after it emerged Ms gas son was planning to film “non-simulated” sex scenes.

Creative Scotland was asked to explain its decision to fund Rein by Holyrood’s culture committee.

The arts funding body had initially helped promote Ms Gasson’s search for performers for what she descried as a “pro sex and pro sex work project”, saying some of the roles would involve “hardcore” acts.

In his response to the committee, Mr Munro states: “Creative Scotland seeks to fund a broad range of cultural and creative work, across a wide spectrum of creative practice and for a diverse range of audiences, from that which can be seen as mainstream, to work which is far more challenging, provocative, and may risk controversy.”

Mr Munro said Scotland had a long history and solid reputation as a producer and presenter of “radical and experimental performance”.