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Bread & Rice Prices To
Go Up This Week
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For 30.000 Today
All In The Name of Art
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For Third Place |
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All In The Name of Art
A Costa Rican artist who
used a starving dog as
the centre piece for his
exhibition has unleashed
a storm of protest. In
the name of art, he
chained the animal and
deprived it of food and
water.
Ironically, he gave the
dog the name Natividad
(birth), but apparently
it died right in front
of the public's eyes,
still chained to the
wall.
Animal welfare
organizations worldwide
are being inundated with
letters of outrage from
members of the public.
One of them, Pat
Barr-Sanders of the
Johannesburg-based
Society for Animals in
Distress - which works
with animals in squatter
camps - said she was
receiving about 100
e-mails a day about the
issue.
"I can no longer cope
emotionally or workwise,"
said Barr-Sanders.
International
organizations such as
Care2 have asked people
to sign petitions
against the Costa Rican
artist, Guillermo
Habacuc Vargas.
It is claimed Vargas
paid some children to
catch the starving
stray, which then became
the centre piece of his
exhibition at a gallery
in Managua, Nicaragua,
last year.
Vargas said his
"artwork" was a homage
to Natividad Canda, a
Nicaraguan who had
recently been killed by
two rottweilers.
While many people asked
him to release the
animal, he refused. He
is said to have
prevented bystanders
from giving it anything
to eat or drink and
although it was
obviously sick, no vet
was called.
Vargas was then chosen
to represent his country
at the Bienal
Centroamericana in
Honduras this year,
which has stirred up
further outrage.
The World Society for
the Protection of
Animals (WSPA) claims
some of the information
circulating in this
regard is untrue -
though it does not say
what details are false.
It confirms the
exhibition did take
place in October last
year, but said while
Vargas would be
participating in
Honduras, he did not
intend to repeat his
exhibit using a dog.
"While there is an
animal cruelty law in
Costa Rica, there is no
such legislation in
Nicaragua.
"Therefore, the artist
did not break the law by
mistreating this dog,"
said a spokesman for the
society.
The society said it was
unclear how long the dog
had been kept, or why,
if it was suffering, no
one had done anything
about it.
The WSPA in Costa Rica
has contacted the
Ministry of Art and
Culture to urge it to
ban Vargas from
representing Costa Rica
in the forthcoming
event.
"The response was that
since Vargas was
participating at the
Biennial with a
different exhibit, they
could not ban him from
attending."
WSPA said it was
unfortunate this artist
would now gain publicity
through this second
exhibition despite his
previous display
involving mistreatment
of the dog.
"Our Costa Rica office
continues to monitor
this situation in the
hope we can still stop
the artist from
participating in the
Biennial with any
exhibit," said the
spokesman. |
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