houndsinheavenstudio

02 November 2007

How far can we go with our Art?

An artist paid children to catch a stray dog and installed it in the gallery to starve and eventually die! The artist was chosen to represent his country in a 2008 biennale. . .

Check out the article: http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=12589&pst=878550&archival=&posts=5

Please see the pictures:
http://www.marcaacme.com/blogs/analog/index.php/2007/08/22/5 piezas_de_habacuc

And the petition site to boycott the artists from participating in the biennale:
http://www.petitiononline.com/13031953/petition.html

And the gallery who allowed it:
http://www.galeriacodice.com/index.php?action=contact


Personally I feel the responsibility is with the gallery. Curatorial authority must be able to discern what is appropriate for public viewing. Artist express anything in any medium: love and fear in literary art (books), cinema (movies) performing art (theater), music, dance, visual art (paintings, sculptural pieces, etc.) and it is the CURATOR who makes sense of these works for the audience to understand. Shocking, mindless concepts can still be exhibited powerfully without hurting anybody!


And I ask: If you were the audience, what would you do? Can you honestly just stand there and allow it to happen without calling attention to it?

I would probably feed the dog first, demand that the dog be released and threaten the institution for curatorial abuse and the artist and his art as pure INSANITY. For now,
I will sign the petition to ban the artist from the biennale and write the gallery.