Sick & Heartless "Art"

"Guillermo Habacuc Vargas paid local children to catch a dog on the street and then confined, starved and publicly displayed the dog as an "art" exhibit until the innocent animal died of starvation.
This man is by no definition of the word an "artist", he is somebody who enjoys inflicting prolonged suffering upon his innocent victims.
He is a danger to all of society as it is well documented that those with the capacity to intentionally cause harm to an animal have the same capacity to harm humans.
Vargas stated that this animal would have died eventually of natural causes - this is unjustifiable and beyond logical, rational thinking.
Each and every person who knew of and witnessed the suffering of this innocent dog and the organizers of the event, are equally as guilty of causing its death.
And to let this crime go unpunished and instead be awarded by Guillermo Vargas representing Costa Rica in Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008 is unacceptable and shameful not only to Costa Rica but to all of its international participants.
He should be jailed and prosecuted to the fullest extent of law for this animals death, not representing Costa Rica as an artist for he is not an artist and to refer to him as such is an insult to all true artists."

"Has cruelty & death become so commonplace that people let this dog die for “art”? Or that people have become so complacent that no one speaks out or does anything when something as horrible as this is happening in front of them? I would have broken all sorts of laws to rescue this poor dog. This is such an outrage that I can barely find the words to express myself properly."

http://luckybunnynyc.blogspot.com/2007/10/starving-dog-as-art-utter-outrage.html

"The costa rican artist Guillermo Vargas let a stray dog starve to death during a performance that was mounted in an artistic fair at nicaragua. With dog's food he wrote in one wall "eres lo que lees" (you are what you read), the sandinista hymn was being played backwards and they were burning 175 rocks of crack and a marihuana once. Not happy with this, the artists known as Habacuc captured a dog in a slum of Managua and he tied him to one of the walls of his demential montage. The poor animal died the next day.

After being questioned and criticized for his work the author of this cruelty replied that his intention was to attack social hypocrisis. Among his confusing intentions he wanted to honor Natividad Canda, who was attacked in Nicaragua by 2 rottweilers. Vargas states that people didn't feel compassion for that man until he was aten by dogs, he also added that no one decided to feed the dog he was "exposing" thus contributing to his death. As logical as it seems, animal rights asociations disqualified this pretended work of art. It's really surprising that this kind of violent artistic expressions but unfortunately we now face the medusa syndrome, we are astonished at the screen, staring all kinds of horros without our consciousness or stomachs revolting.

The brutal "work" of Guillermo Vargas should lead us to think again of the real purpose of art and the lack of it in some of the so called contemporary art. Obsessed by taboo for disrespecting everything whatever it is, we should try to recover our discrimination capacity or at least accept that sometimes we have the right to be indignated.
Art can't be the shield from vandalism and for that reason it shouldn't be granted with impunity. Chris Burden shot against a plane in an airport, Santiago Sierra filled a Synagoge in Germany with unbreathable gases, Teresa Margolles generated vapor with water used to cleanse corpses. The worst thing is that these are obscene exhibition of atrocities without any real lack of purpose other than the quest for media impact."

Thanks to Akbal for english translation from:
http://www.abc.es/20071006/cultura-arte/provocacion-repugnante_200710060253.html


Rest in Peace ... lil' one...

PETITION & INFO :

- http://www.petitiononline.com/13031953/petition-sign.html
- from www.care2.com
- http://www.nacion.com/ln_ee/2007/octubre...
- http://elperritovive.blogspot.com/
- http://reiskeks-natividad.blogspot.com/2007/10/boycott....
- http://reiskeks-natividad.blogspot.com/
- http://luckybunnynyc.blogspot.com/2007/10/starving-dog...
- http://spiritvegan.blogspot.com/2007/10/boycott-guil....
- blog @ myspace

12 comments:

Sami Rautiainen said...

WTF?!

I'm speechless...

Unknown said...

The worst part of it all is that such an "artist" is trying to do the same atrocity again. We must stop him before cruelty comes the other way around.

geronimous said...

Haha, by writing this article you have become the social hypocrisis the artist was trying to show.

You feel bad for this one animal, while it should have given the millions of starving dogs in the streets a voice to you, millions of dogs treated like a plague and not cared about for a second.

You're a hypocrit, and do not see the message portrayed. I'm a hypocrit as well, but at least I know when I am.

Anonymous said...

No geronimous, you are a retard. It comes down to Theory and Practicum. We may theorize about anything. That is our right. But there are moral boundaries when it comes to application. You have lost your moral compass, as have these other barbarians.

Animal Voice said...

Geronimous,


If you would just take the time to check all the articles in my blog, you'll see that many different topics regarding animals are covered, including strays, etc..etc.
Your opinion is your opinion, and if you want to think i'm an hypocrit.. fine with me - you are free to think what you like, when you like it.
But as for me, i know where i'm standing, and i know what i'm doing - expecially about animal rights.
If you can't see it for yourself... it's not my task to spend more words to make you understand.

Animal Voice

Unknown said...

OK, not to be the "bad guy" but the dog was only on display for a day. A day doesn't kill.

Sorry.

If it had been a week, then it would have been cruel.

Just my humble opinion

Animal Voice said...

Hey Alli

"One day doesn't kill"...
..but that same 'one day' can make the difference between life and death to any creature, in this particular case to Natividad.

The dog was starving and emaciated - if instead of being there he would have been taken care of, brought to a vet and given some good food and/or medicines... there were good chances that he could have been still alive.

If you see somebody wounded in the street... you bring him/her directly to the hospital... or would you bring him/her to an expo, pretending that it represents the "sufference in the world"..?

I hope you understand my point.

Anonymous said...

Its better than seeing a sick dog on the street and ignoring it. The artist brought the dog in, put it on display, and fed it. These rumors that he had a healthy dog and then starved it until it was dead is just the internet hype that surrounds all stories of the such

Anonymous said...

I am an art student myself, and as someone who took a straydog home to care for, I am sickend by this performance. This isn't art. The only message i can take from this, is that humankind is ignorant and selfish. Ignorance is the ultimate cause of animal cruelty, poverty, racial discrimination you name it.
And if by calling this art makes it ok, then i'm sad to say the world is sick.
And are we so stupid we need the message illustrated in this manner?
This is also why i can not call myself an artist because the art world is mostly shit somethimes.
(my dog is called nubia and she is a darling:)!)

Laura said...

this has a message about animal cruelty..

its sad how this guy totally starved this poor dog for "art"

its almost sicking

Anonymous said...

I pray this 'artist' dies a long and painful death, while people watch. I'm an artist, this is not art. this is not social commentary. this is a coward.

Anonymous said...

Hey, I found this old article via this information about animals in art:

http://www.artinfo.com/news/story/762027/dont-feed-the-artists-10-contemporary-artworks-that-outraged-animal-lovers

If you are still active on this blog you could feature the link. BUT WHATS IMPORTANT IS: it states that the artist himself signed this petition with the explanation: "An artist always signs his work."
This guy: http://blog.art21.org/2010/03/04/you-are-what-you-read/

who could read spanish, found out that the dog was actually allways well fed and that the guy manipulated the mass media, waiting for a backlash.
He stated: "Take a dog off the streets and put it into a gallery and it becomes an ethical phenomenon, while stray dogs and most real human suffering are ignored or given minimal attention."
So I guess this guy is not as insane as he seemed, even so I can not say for sure what really happened to the dog because the internet is my only information source.
Anyways, we should think about the use of animals in galleries as a whole phenomenon. It is just weird.