On the 23 August 1994, in a boathouse on the Scottish island of Jura, Drummond and Cauty incinerated £1,000,000 in cash. The burning was witnessed by an old friend of Drummond's, freelance journalist Jim Reid, who subsequently wrote an article about the ceremony for The Observer. Reid admitted to first feeling shock and guilt about the burning, which quickly turned to boredom. On 23 August 1995, exactly one year after the burning, Drummond and Cauty returned to Jura for the premier screening of the film, now known as “Watch the K Foundation Burn a Million Quid“. The film was then toured around the UK over the next few months (plus one showing in Belgrade), with a Q&A session at the end of each screening where members of the audience asked Drummond and Cauty why they burnt the money and also offered their own interpretations.
Biographies of the artists and the groups:
The K Foundation was an art foundation set up by Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty (The KLF) in 1993, following their 'retirement' from the music industry. The Foundation served as an artistic outlet for the duo's post-retirement KLF income. Between 1993 and 1995, they spent this money in a number of ways, including on a series of Situationist-inspired press adverts and extravagant subversions in the art world, focusing in particular on the Turner Prize. Most notoriously, when their plans to use banknotes as part of a work of art fell through, they burnt a million pounds in cash.
The K Foundation announced a 23 year moratorium on all projects from November 1995. They further indicated that they would not speak about the burning of the million pounds during the period of this moratorium.
