K Foundation Burn a Million Quid

Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid
Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid
	1995 poster announcing a screening tour of Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid
Directed by	Gimpo
Starring	K Foundation
Distributed by	K Foundation
Release date	23 August 1995;
Running time	67 minutes
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Budget	£1,000,000

K Foundation Burn a Million Quid^{[n 1]} was a work of performance art executed and filmed on 23 August 1994 in which the K Foundation, an art duo consisting of Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty, burned £1 million (equivalent to £2.5 million in 2023) in the back of a disused boathouse on the Ardfin Estate on the Scottish island of Jura. The money represented the bulk of the K Foundation's funds that had been previously earned by Drummond and Cauty as the KLF.

The event was recorded on a Hi-8 video camera by K Foundation collaborator Gimpo. On the one year anniversary of the burning, 23 August 1995, the film was released as Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid and was toured around the UK, with Drummond and Cauty engaging audiences in debates about the burning and its meaning. In November 1995, the duo pledged to dissolve the K Foundation and to refrain from public discussion of the burning for a period of 23 years; Drummond subsequently made the decision to discreetly speak about the burning in 2000 and 2004. Initially, he was unrepentant, but in 2004 he admitted that he regretted burning the money. The self-imposed moratorium officially ended on 23 August 2017, 23 years after the burning, when Cauty and Drummond hosted a debate asking "Why Did the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid?" during their "Welcome to the Dark Ages" event.

Collaborator Chris Brook edited and compiled a book, K Foundation Burn A Million Quid, which was published by Ellipsis Books in 1997. It compiles stills from the film, accounts of events and viewer reactions, and an image of the brick that was manufactured from the fire's ashes. A film consisting of a static three-minute shot of the brick, "This Brick", was shown at London's Barbican Centre prior to Drummond and Cauty's performance as 2K in the same year.
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[n 1]