IT'S NOT ABOUT ART



This week's blog celebrates the life of Natividad, a helpless stray dog whose life came to a suffering end at the hands of a Costa Rican artist in Managua, Nicaragua, in the name of "art".

In recognition of this 100th posting on My Open Kimono, I wanted to leverage it's viral growth, reaching 72 countries globally, to petition the artist and the hosting country to put an end to this twisted and obscene excuse for art seeking media impact.

We are in the communications business and strive to craft our own form of art into messages that inform, entertain, move and effect change. Art cannot be used as a shield for cruelty or vandalism and for that reason it should not be granted impunity. This artist moved me to sign the petition in an effort to disgrace the artist, the exhibition, the hosting country as well as Honduras for inviting him to exhibit as well!!

Click here for a link to the petition.


4 comments:

Unknown said...

Wikipedia on Guillermo Habacuc Vargas:
... other than a three-hour period during which the dog was on display… the dog was not tied up, and was fed with food brought in by Vargas himself

... the dog was in a state of starvation when it was captured and escaped after one day of captivity

Paul Benjou said...

I looked into these comments before publishing the post and found that the artist keeps changing his story depending upon his "mood".

Unknown said...

I saw those comments about him changing his story. From what I read (far from complete), he has allegedly changed his reasons for justifying the exhibit. We can all judge his honesty and intent.

However, the wikipedia comments did not come from him. The petition video ignores all this information and to me, it's misleading and inflammatory.

Paul Benjou said...

Although we may never know the truth (Wikipedian's publish what they want to publish as well), nor will we understand his intent.

Yes, ther are many versions of the story on the net, but the public display of a starving / dying animal is still no excuse for art's sake.