Performance artist Abraham Poincheval has been told by curators at the Hunting and Wildlife Museum in Paris that he cannot use the museums lavatory to defecate but must use the woods at the back of the car park like any other bear.
Poincheval had recently started living inside the skin of a hollowed-out bear as part of a 13 day project to bring awareness to the plight of endangered wildlife in France.
But when he asked museum staff which museum facility he should use for defecating, they pointed to a wooded area adjacent to the disabled parking bay.
The 42 year old artist explained that for him the act of living inside the bear skin signified a rebirth, a rite of passage, to pass from the world of the dead to that of the living but curator Simone Esmont said it made little difference and despite his explanation, Poincheval would still have to shit in the woods.
Esmont told the artsist that although the performance was undoubtedly for a good cause, the museum could not make exceptions for people pretending to be bears to use their indoor facilities.
‘Art has to be authentic, otherwise it loses its power’ explained Esmont ‘everybody knows where bears do their business....Poincheval either shits in the wood or not at all.
‘Oh...and you can tell him he can’t use the museum canteen either....if he wants to be taken seriously he can forage in the bins along with all the other bears’.
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French performance artist told to 'shit in the wood'
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