Simon Roberts: Together for the Final Say

‘Together for the Final Say’ is a large-scale photographic work by artist Simon Roberts and is part of ‘A Call to the Commons’, a public art and architecture project that builds on the LFA 2023 theme ‘In Common’, featuring 6 newly commissioned posters by artists, architects and designers installed on billboards, fly posters and digital screens across London.

On October 19, 2019, campaigners from the People’s Vote movement took part in the ‘Together for the Final Say’ event calling for a second Brexit referendum. Their message was that regardless on how the public voted in the Brexit referendum, the British people deserved a say on the final deal negotiated. Supporters amassed in Parliament Square for this common cause, after marching en masse through central London. It’s estimated that up to 400,000 attended the event, making it one of the biggest ever outpouring of pro-EU sentiment.

The photograph portrays a large group of the People’s Vote campaigners crowded around the statue of Millicent Fawcett in the shadow of the Palace of Westminster, which honours the British suffragist leader and social campaigner Dame Millicent Fawcett - the first monument to a woman in Parliament Square and also its first sculpture by a woman (Gillian Wearing). In the wake of the Government’s 2023 Public Order Bill, where the legal definition of ‘serious disruption’ has been broadened, giving police greater flexibility when to intervene to stop disruptive protests, the photograph questions how our public spaces are now being policed and also references the debate about who we see memorialised in our public spaces.
Guests are invited to visit site locations throughout June and on the evening of 20th June we invite you to attend a panel event to debate some of the themes around the 6 artworks produced.

Commissioned by Aldo Rinaldi and Rumi Bose, and sponsored by Build Hollywood and Cross River Partnership.