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Live Donkey to Be Displayed as Exhibit during Frieze Art Fair

May 4, 2016 by Leave a Comment


The News

In June 2015, the art world took note when animal rights activists staged a protest at a gallery exhibiting live animals in New York City. Both the art press and the mainstream media reported on the controversy. One year later, that protest is referenced in a new article in the Financial Times about Maurizio Cattelan, an artist who is using live donkey in his exhibit at the Frieze Art Fair in NYC: “The US animal rights lobby is increasingly vociferous. Last year, they called out Gavin Brown’s NY Gallery for restaging Jannis Kounellis’s installation of 12 live horses. Is he [Maurizio Cattelan] not worried about protests?”

According to the Financial Times, the exhibit – entitled “Enter at Your Own Risk — Do Not Touch, Do Not Feed, No Smoking, No Photographs, No Dogs, Thank you” – features “a live donkey alone in a room lit by a baroque chandelier.”

Sole donkey to be exhibited at Frieze Art Fair in NYC

Sole donkey to be exhibited at Frieze Art Fair in NYC

Cattelan claims that the donkey will have everything “it” needs, including the company of others: “I’m pretty sure it won’t feel lonely, with so many people passing by.”

Cattelan is better known for using taxidermy in his art installations. According to his Wikipedia page, these “works are designed to connect humans and animals through the projections of human emotions which the former places on the latter.”

Maurizio Cattelan displays dead animals as art

Maurizio Cattelan displays dead animals

Activists argue that animals – dead or alive – are not exhibits. “If we wouldn’t use a toddler in an art installation, then why should we use a donkey, who would be every bit as confused and out of place?” said Donny Moss of TheirTurn.net. “And if we wouldn’t stuff our grandmothers and suspend them from the ceiling, then why should we do the same to horses? Has our false sense of superiority over other animals given us license to do whatever we want with them? ”

Your Turn

The live donkey will be exhibited at the Frieze Art Fair on Randall’s Island Park from May 5 – 8.  Please contact Frieze to give the company feedback on the use of live animals at its art fair.

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