Rees considered destruction of Jen Reid statue

A BBC Two documentary will lift the lid on stark choices considered by Bristol mayor Marvin Rees after police warned counter-protestors could attack a sculpture placed on the Colston Statue plinth.

A film crew recorded a debate between Rees and top advisers on the day a lifelike depiction of Jen Reid, by London artist Marc Quinn, appeared on the empty space a month after slave trader Edward Colston’s monument was pulled down and dumped in the docks.

In footage to be aired on Thursday in Statue Wars, Rees proposes the scenario of not ordering the city council to remove the unauthorised installation and instead leaving it at the mercy of counter-protesters to destroy it “to allow people to feel a bit of the pain”.

But Kevin Slocombe, head of the mayor’s office (whose £95,000 salary is higher than the mayor) warns that the image of the fragile artwork, called A Surge of Power, being smashed would be “strong” because it is so realistic.

And the city council’s head of external communications, Saskia Konynenburg, says it would be “horrific” to see Reid’s resin likeness suffer the same watery fate as Colston.

As the trio debate the pros and cons of having the statue removed just hours after it appeared on July 15 2020, Slocombe said that “the police intel is it will probably be attacked tonight”.

“Because it’s made of resin, it’s dead easy to smash up, so there’s a council team ready to remove it. So I guess our decision is based on this timeline of it being attacked.”

Rees replied: “So play it out – what if it does get smashed? We’ve been warning from the start, we’ve been very clear we want the space, we’ve been very clear about opportunists jumping into the situation to try to make their name and tell their story.

“Sometimes you need to allow people to feel a bit of the pain.”

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Read more: Magnificent mural of Jen Reid painted on Stokes Croft

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Konynenburg said in the mayor’s office discussion that it would be “another bit of PR” for the artist if it did get torn down, create “more vitriol” at those responsible and cause more divisions.

But Rees said: “I don’t know. Sometimes people need an opportunity to see where things could go.”

Slocombe said: “It’s quite a decent sculpture of a black woman, therefore the image of that woman being smashed is strong.”

Konynenburg replied: “What if people decide they want to put a rope around it, pull it down and drag it to the harbour? That would be horrific.

“I’m also worried about the woman it’s of. She’s local, she’s now going to be on the news, I just worry she perhaps has not fully understood the implications that could come back to her and her family.”

The mayor said: “There are no clean decisions here. My sense is relax about it, as much as we can.”

Rehearsing speaking to Quinn, Rees said: “You made a statement, you can have the plinth for the day, you’ve had your time, you’ve had your bit on Channel 4, and then we take it tomorrow.

“‘We will look after it, Marc, but this is the cost of staff time, how much in terms of police time’ and we will send him the bill.

“He needs to know you can’t run around doing what you want without accounting for the consequences – the social consequences or the financial consequences – so I find that frustrating.”

As footage is then shown of council contractors removing the statue at dawn the next day, Rees said: “An empty plinth is one of the most powerful statements we have at this moment in time in the city because it represents a city that is taking time to stop and think about its future.

“The best way forward for the city would be to begin to come to terms with its full history, and within that context be able to have a more informed view of who it wants to honour, if anyone. This circumvents that process.

“I recognise it’s an incredible statue. But as a political leader you don’t have the luxury of stopping at the first bus stop of meaning when you see an event happen.

“You have to think, ‘Okay, how will this be interpreted by other people and what are the unintended consequences?’”

Statue Wars: One Summer in Bristol is on BBC Two at 9pm on Thursday – image: Uplands Television

Main photo & video: Martin Booth

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