Merda d'artista
Merda d'artista (German artist shit ) is a well-known project by the Italian concept artist Piero Manzoni .
In 1961 Manzoni filled 30 g of his own faeces into 90 cans and sealed them odor-proof. The cans were individually numbered from 001 to 090 and labeled in several languages with merda d'artista or artist shit . The artist finally sold the cans at the then current gold price for 30 g (approx. 37 US dollars).
Manzoni's work is influenced by the ideas of the ready-mades Marcel Duchamps . The action attracted a lot of attention, for some because of the radical break with artistic tradition, for others as an obvious sign of the degeneration and decadence of modern art .
All cans have been sold and are in various collections around the world. Today they have a significantly higher value than the one Manzoni estimated, a can was auctioned at Sotheby’s in 2008 for 97,250 English pounds (approx. 132,000 euros ).
A x-ray of the can to determine the content is almost impossible because it is made of metal; opening it would destroy the work and could damage the contents.
Bernhard Bazile, one of the owners, nevertheless opened his can in 1989. Since then, this has been regarded as a work of art in its own right, Boîteouverte de Piero Manzoni .
Because a Danish museum in Randers had stored one of the cans at excessively high temperatures and damaged it, it had to pay the owner 250,000 Danish kroner for its loan after a legal dispute in the 1990s.
Manzoni's father, a can producer, to him with the mocking words: "Your work is shit!" Have inspired this work.
See also
- Cloaca , a machine by artist Wim Delvoye that produces feces.
Individual evidence
- ^ Piero Manzoni, authorized website of the artist; Tate etc. , edition 10/2007.
- ↑ Catalog entry at Sotheby’s ; Article on this and other works by Manzoni. ( Memento of the original from June 21, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Manzoni - Frankfurter Städel shows first comprehensive retrospective - 2013.
- ^ Uffe Christensen: Museum sur over lorteudtalelse ( Danish ) In: Jyllands-Posten . January 13, 2010. Archived from the original on October 21, 2013. Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved May 2, 2014.
