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Goldfish liquidised in museum show
From correspondents in Copenhagen
May 13, 2003
A DANISH museum director has gone on trial on charges of cruelty to animals for an exhibit in which goldfish were liquidised in a blender to test visitors' sense of right and wrong.
The exhibit at the Trapholt modern art museum in 2000 featured live goldfish swimming in a blender. Visitors were given the possibility of pressing the button to turn the blender on.
Artist Marco Evaristti, the Chilean-born bad boy of the Danish art scene, said at the time that he wanted to force people to "do battle with their conscience".
Two goldfish died after two visitors pressed the button.
The Danish association Friends of Animals filed a complaint against the artist as well as the director of the museum, Peter Meyer, for cruelty to animals.
Police ordered Meyer to pay a 2000 kroner ($481) fine for failing to respect an injunction to cut the blenders' electricity so that visitors would not be tempted to kill the goldfish.
But the director refused to pay the fine in the name of artistic freedom, leaving police no option but to take him to court.
"It's a question of principle. An artist has the right to create works which defy our concept of what is right and what is wrong," Meyer told the court today.
The artist meanwhile said the idea behind the exhibit was to "place people before a dilemma: to choose between life and death".
"It was a protest against what is going on in the world, against this cynicism, this brutality that impregnates the world in which we live."
The verdict is expected next week.
Other controversial exhibits by the provocateur include one last year in which he created 30 pieces of art using paint mixed with heroin. He wanted to promote the work by giving the drug away free to Danish addicts.
The 'smack art' exhibit was his way of "protesting personally against the idleness of politicians incapable of combating the problems caused by drugs in society", he said.
Earlier this year he had drug addicts create their own canvasses using paint mixed with HIV-contaminated blood, heroin and cocaine.
From correspondents in Copenhagen
May 13, 2003
A DANISH museum director has gone on trial on charges of cruelty to animals for an exhibit in which goldfish were liquidised in a blender to test visitors' sense of right and wrong.
The exhibit at the Trapholt modern art museum in 2000 featured live goldfish swimming in a blender. Visitors were given the possibility of pressing the button to turn the blender on.
Artist Marco Evaristti, the Chilean-born bad boy of the Danish art scene, said at the time that he wanted to force people to "do battle with their conscience".
Two goldfish died after two visitors pressed the button.
The Danish association Friends of Animals filed a complaint against the artist as well as the director of the museum, Peter Meyer, for cruelty to animals.
Police ordered Meyer to pay a 2000 kroner ($481) fine for failing to respect an injunction to cut the blenders' electricity so that visitors would not be tempted to kill the goldfish.
But the director refused to pay the fine in the name of artistic freedom, leaving police no option but to take him to court.
"It's a question of principle. An artist has the right to create works which defy our concept of what is right and what is wrong," Meyer told the court today.
The artist meanwhile said the idea behind the exhibit was to "place people before a dilemma: to choose between life and death".
"It was a protest against what is going on in the world, against this cynicism, this brutality that impregnates the world in which we live."
The verdict is expected next week.
Other controversial exhibits by the provocateur include one last year in which he created 30 pieces of art using paint mixed with heroin. He wanted to promote the work by giving the drug away free to Danish addicts.
The 'smack art' exhibit was his way of "protesting personally against the idleness of politicians incapable of combating the problems caused by drugs in society", he said.
Earlier this year he had drug addicts create their own canvasses using paint mixed with HIV-contaminated blood, heroin and cocaine.
) Or a near instantaneous death in a blender. The blender seems more humane to me.
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