Achi news desk-
The work, which aimed to show “an erotic journey through a unique Scottish landscape,” received £84,555 through the art agency’s Open Funding round in January.
READ MORE: Rein: Minister condemns ‘secret cave sex party’ funded by taxpayers
In a letter to Holyrood’s Culture Committee, Iain Munro, Chief Executive of Creative Scotland, said Ms Rae Gasson had breached her contract with the arts funding body.
He said that the application initially stated that the sexual performance in Rein would be simulated.
However, in a call for participants, Ms Rae Gasson has made it clear that “any gender that appears will be simulated but performed by cast members.”
Mr Munro described this as a “new and significant difference” which “took the project into unacceptable territory.”
He told the MSPs: “This represented a significant change to the approved project, moving it from ‘performance’ to reality, and into a space which, in Creative Scotland’s view, was inappropriate for public funding.”
Mr Munro said that Creative Scotland had “recovered £67,741 from the applicant” which, together with the 10% of funding that had not yet been paid, “means that £76,196 of the total award has now been deducted back.”
Rein had incurred “legitimate contractual costs of £8,359, mainly for subcontracted freelancers, by the time Creative Scotland notified them that the funding was being withdrawn.”
These fees will not be refunded.
The project was awarded £23,219 of lottery funding through Creative Scotland in August 2022 for research and development.
That will also not be recovered as “the work has been completed as specified in the approved application.”
READ MORE: Criticism about protection has prompted Creative Scotland to fund pornography
According to its website, Rein was to be a “45-minute, multi-screen, immersive moving image installation” performed by a mix of “dancers, sex workers, performers”.
Audiences would be invited to “come and see the Daddies lurking in the woods” and “naked lovers squabbling in long grass” before the show’s climax, a “secret cave sex party featuring a feast” of overt sexual practices.
The website explains that “sex is usually ‘simulated’ on traditional film sets – performers wear modesty, there are barriers between them, actual violence is discouraged/prevented, and there would be no contact venereal.”
However, Rein was “a sex positive exploration of dyke sexuality, and we draw on a long tradition of pornographic, erotic and radical queer performance work where sex, in all its messiness and complexity, gets to be a part of’ the process like other actions and feelings.”
In his letter to the MSPs, Mr Munro said it was right that art and artists not only entertain and inspire but challenge and make people uncomfortable.
He said: “Creative Scotland seeks to fund a wide range of cultural and creative work, across a broad spectrum of creative practice and for a diverse range of audiences, from what might be considered mainstream, to work that is much more challenging, provocative, and may be at risk of controversy.
“Themes of gender and sexuality have been seen in art throughout history and continue to be visible in contemporary life”.
He said the body’s role was not “to censor work, or to be arbiters of cultural taste.”
However, he said Creative Scotland had “important responsibilities to the public for the proper use of public money, responsibilities we take very seriously.”
Mr Munro also confirmed that Creative Scotland would publish the initial application for funding once they had “completed a thorough review of these materials to remove any personal information, any business confidential information, or any information which, if obtained publicly disclosed, be a threat to an individual.”
He told MSPs that since the project became the focus of mainstream and social media, “individuals involved have received threats and abuse, both online and in person.”
Mr Munro added: “There were also very different comments directed at individuals, organizations and groups associated with the project, as well as at Creative Scotland staff.”
Ms Rae Gasson has been asked for comment.
