Attack the artwork in toy format can be fri … – RFI

Observing preceding and following the vandalism facts – that put down the phallic work of Place Vendôme – it is possible to assemble a puzzle that raises suspicion about right-wing groups

First clue:. an incident little noticed by the French press occurred in the opening of the facility. While the structure 24 feet high was erected, an individual approached the artist, hit his face and shouted “this is not French! This has nothing to do with this place! “, Before rushing out. The action approaches the nationalist content that often characterize the discourse of the extreme right.

Paul McCarthy and the organizers of the Foire Internationale d’Art Contemporain, big art event in Paris which were part of the work, not suspected that the attack could be the harbinger of something bigger, which would occur on Saturday night:. complete disconnection of air sculpture

“humiliated Paris!”

Second clue: the indignant protests against the work all over the Internet after installing Tree – most of them from far-right groups or right-wing politicians. The Pritemps Français, known for bringing a militant Catholic right, was one of the first to be outraged, with a message on Twitter: “A giant anal plug 24 feet tall has just been installed on the Place Vendôme! The square was disfigured! Paris was humiliated! “The group posted. Soon after the attack, yet on Saturday night, twitte again, this time ironic: “Oups … The pine Christmas Place Vandome exploded? . “

The third and final track is no shortage of precedents for this type of action: in 2011, for example, the photograph Piss Christ , Andres Serrano, who represented Jesus Christ and was considered blasphemous by Catholic groups and extreme right, was destroyed with hammer blows in Avignon.

Work is “crisis of civilization”, says critic

In an article this Monday (20), the left-wing newspaper Libération questions how traditional Catholic groups can know what is an anal plug, “an object not as familiar to most people and is used mainly to prepare sodomy “. Libération considers, however, that anal plug is present even in the work of Molière, in his comedy l’Ecole des Femmes, 1662.

But the Le Figaro newspaper center-right, asked in Garrafal title: “What is the ugly pine Christmas Place Vendôme?”. The newspaper interviewed the art teacher Jean-Louis Harouel, author of large La Falsification, L’art Contemporain , to whom the work of McCarthy is merely a “farce”. Throughout the interview, the expert refused even to name the American artist, preferring to call it “the lord who polluted the Place Vendôme.” According Harouel, loss of sense of art “is symptomatic of a profound crisis of society and civilization.”

The episode was only the first controversy of traditional Fiac, the Contemporary Art Fair in Paris that opens next Thursday (23).