Amadeus Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 Artist Turns Synagogue Into Gas Chamber An artist invited Germans to come and be symbolically gased with car exhaust fumes in a former synagogue. Jewish leaders and media commentators say he is belittling the Holocaust and insulting its victims. But hundreds of people have lined up for the experience. Santiago Sierra, a Spanish performance artist, pledged on Monday to hold talks with Jewish community leaders outraged by his project to give people a sense of the Holocaust by pumping lethal car exhaust fumes into a former synagogue and letting visitors enter one by one with a breathing apparatus. Sierra, known internationally for his controversial work, led hoses from the exhaust pipes of six parked cars into the building in the town of Pulheim-Stommeln near Cologne to create lethal levels of carbon monoxide there. Around 200 visitors who lined up for the first gassing session on Sunday had to sign a declaration that they were aware of the risks before being allowed in wearing a breathing apparatus and accompanied by a fireman........They were allowed to spend a maximum of five minutes in the synagogue.... Sierra, 39, who lives in Mexico, ..... said in a statement distributed outside the synagogue that he was trying to counter the "trivialization of our memory of the Holocaust." Not sure what to think of that - is it really art, plain tasteless and offending, or an outright trivialization of the holocaust? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.K. Posted March 14, 2006 Share Posted March 14, 2006 No. Sincerely etc etc PK Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lonan3 Posted March 15, 2006 Share Posted March 15, 2006 Where's Roy MacMillan when you need him? Personally, I don't regard it as 'art.' I think it's yet another of the devices - increasingly frequent - to put an artist's name in the public forum so that he/she can gain celebrity status and be paid a great deal more for whatever he/she does. As such, therefore, I regard it as an extremely offensive trivialization of the holocaust. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ean Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 But no, today anyone can pour paint on a floor and get the dog to walk all over it and people regard it as art! The point is that you wouldn't think of doing it, modern art is to challenge the parameters of art and the people who say that "my five year old could do that" fail to appreciate that yes they probably could...but they wouldn't think to do it. It's about the creative thought of the piece, and the subsequent creation of it. That's why Duchamp's fountain was voted the most influential work of art recently. Putting a urinal in an art gallery wasn't anything new, plumbers had been doing it for decades. What was new was putting a urinal in a gallery as a piece and the thought process that "it is art because it is taken out of the surroundings where it isn't art". That sentiment has been so influential over "post-modern" artists. It could be said that Duchamp almost created his own movement. Now i'm off to create a perfect forgery of "white on white" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theintelligentthug Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 the problem with modern art is it is so self-defeating. many of the so-called artists have essentially ripped pages out of the Dadaist handbook, and hoped nobody noticed. its rediculous. "art is art, as long as i say its art" is one phrase used to justify "happenings" that somehow cause offence, when in actual fact, its the process of causing offence which has come to be the major selling point of modern art, and thusly IS the crux of modern art. my own two cents, is that this whole " i hope to question..." ethos of art has now become a moot point. i want artists to stop cahllenging, exploring, questioning and seeking, and i want them to start telling. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gladys Posted March 17, 2006 Share Posted March 17, 2006 The point is that you wouldn't think of doing it, modern art is to challenge the parameters of art Sorry Ean, but much of current modern art does not push the boundaries of art but of good taste. To me, art of any form, be it visual, written, audial, is all about creating emotions of every sort, not just repugnance or offence, which is what contemporary modern art seems to be trying to do all the time. Art should produce empathetic emotions (be they good or bad) not those emotions that are an innate revulsion and rejection of the piece. In those circumstances the artist then justifies their work by saying they are challenging the emotions of the viewer, in an almost sneering manner. True art doesn't have to be "nice" or pretty. Munch's "The Scream" is a wonderful example of how the artist can produce empathetic, as opposed to antipathetic, emotions. Its a disturbing picture, not one for the dining room, but I do like the emotion that is painted within it and that it evokes. Similarly, Hieronymous Bosch's work, although completely off the wall, draws you in, it may shock but not in a repugnant, but rather in a fascinating, way. The famous calf bisected from nose to tail then suspended in formaldehyde was not art. True, there is an odd beauty about the different textures, colours and patterns created by living tissue. But that was not "art"; it was not created by man, may have been presented by man, but it sure as hell wasn't his handiwork! And what empathetic emotion did it create? None, other than pity for the poor beast that had been put on display in that manner. No, this kind of modern art is charlatanry at its most cynical. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slinkydevil Posted March 19, 2006 Share Posted March 19, 2006 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/4822418.stm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theintelligentthug Posted March 21, 2006 Share Posted March 21, 2006 "i am an artist, so i am not actually wasting water for nothing" he should be knighted just for that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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