Setting up the K Foundation, they placed adverts in the national broad sheets invited members of the public to vote for the worst artist of the year. The 1993Turner Prize was being judged at the same time,the winner of which would receive a prize of £20,000. The prize being offered by Drummond and Cauty was £40,000 and the prize was for the year 1994, as if to prove that the K Foundation were ahead of the rest of the art world.
Channel 4 broadcast live coverage of the Turner Prize, during which two K Foundation adverts were broadcast. The eventual winner of the Turner Prize was Rachel Whiteread, who 'coincidentally' also won the K Foundation Prize for worst artist of the year. Whiteread refused to accept the K Foundation award, but after being told that the money would be incinerated, she reluctantly accepted and gave the money to struggling young artists.
On the August 23 1994, in a boathouse on the island of Jura, just off Scotland, Bill Drummond and Jimmy Cauty incinerated £1,000,000, an act that required the biggest cash withdrawal in British history. The burning was witnessed by Chris Brook, who subsequently wrote an article about the act for the Observer, and filmed on Super 8 by their friend Gimpo (real name: Alan Goodrick).
Exactly one year to the date of the act, 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 is toured around the country over the next twelve months, with a Q&A; session at the end of each screening where members of the audience ask Drummond and Cauty why they burnt the money and also to offer their own interpretations.
On the November 51995 Drummond and Cauty sign a contract on the hood of a rented car. The contract states that Drummond and Cauty will not speak about the money burning for a period of 23 years, ending November 5 2018. They then proceeded to push the car over the edge of the cliff at Cape Wrath.
On the September 171997, the 3 minute film This Brick is premiered. The film consists of one 3 minute shot of a brick made from the ashes of the money burnt at Jura.
On the September 27 1997 a book written by Chris Brooks and Gimpo entitled K Foundation Burn A Million Quid is published by Ellipsis. The book contains stills from the 55 minute film and transcriptions of various Q&A sessions from the tour.
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