When it comes to art, we often come across scandals or events that have brought works and artists to the center of attention. Below we list 10 of the most famous scandals that have shaken the world of contemporary art.
Gino De Dominicis , Second Immortality Solution
The twenty-sixth room of the 1972 Venice Biennale hosted the work of De Dominicis. The artist had positioned a boy with Down syndrome, sitting in a corner with the writing “Second solution of immortality (the universe is still)” around his neck.
The historian Giuseppe Garrera, speaking about the work, said :
"De Dominicis reproduces the vulgarity, the presumption and often the obtuseness of those who look at it. And this is a work that reflects the prejudices of the world". And it was that world in fact that defined the boy in the chair as "mongoloid", "disabled", "subnormal". The media echo of the story was so suggestive that the boy's own family, who had given permission to the artist to create the work, denounced him.
Marina Abramovic, Rhythm 0
It was a night in 1973 when the famous performer Marina Abramovic he stripped himself of any right to Studio Morra Gallery .
The artist had left around her 72 objects and instructions where she declared the object of the performance and to take full responsibility for what she was doing. The performance consisted of remaining still in silence and half naked for six hours, letting people use her body and the objects around her with freedom.
At first the spectators simply watched, but little by little they became familiar with the situation and decided to take turns touching her, cutting off a lock of her hair, hurting her and even threatening her with a revolver. The Gallery stated that the next day many of them called to apologize, unable to understand what had driven them to behave in this way.
Jeff Koons , Made in Heaven
Jeff Koons 's cycle of works Made in Heaven is a collection of provocative works featuring the couple (Jeff Koons and Ilona Staler) nude in explicit poses, intended to examine the place of sexuality in visual culture. Koons employed the photographic style creating the aesthetic of “glamour” images; by blurring the lines between art and pornography, Koons challenged the conventions of artistic taste, encouraging his audience to make their own decisions about what is acceptable.
Paul McCarthy, The Garden
It was 1991 when Jeffrey Deitch inaugurated an exhibition that would go down in history: post human , which brought together the works of 36 artists. Paul Mccarthy 's remained in the minds of many, in fact it represented a standing man having sexual intercourse with a tree describing a purely mechanical and repetitive act, expressing a sexuality that has exceeded the natural limit.
The spectator himself found himself in a situation that made him feel bad, embarrassed, a “voyeur”.
Orlan, Successful Surgery
Between 1990 and 1993, Orlan underwent nine surgical operations to modify her body, a performance broadcast live internationally about which Orlan herself stated: “ Between 1990 and 1993, I did not undergo nine operations. I organized, orchestrated and staged completely voluntarily a series of surgical operations entitled The Reincarnation of Saint ORLAN and Image/New Imag e , because I wanted to sculpt myself, to build a new image by attacking the masks of the innate and questioning notions of beauty. […] because I wanted to criticize, dismantle, destroy these models. There is no reason to hide the transformations of the body because they show the decisions that a woman can make with her body and about her body. ”
Peter Pavlensky
In 2012 he became world famous for protesting against the imprisonment of so-called Pussy Riot , he sewed his mouth shut with barbed wire quoting David Wojnarowicz . Pussy Riot were guilty of “hooliganism” because they were against the Orthodox Church's support for Vladimir Putin's government.
The work of Petr Pavlensky is halfway between art and activism, he has been talked about a lot because in any of his actions he creates confusion and splits public opinion in two; he claims freedom of speech by resorting to crude and violent performances, referring to Viennese activism.
Oliver Tuscan, Sentenced to Death
In 2013, Oliviero Toscani , an Italian photographer, subsidized by Benetton, flew to America to photograph men sentenced to death. The state of Missouri sued the photographer for not having communicated his intentions, namely an advertising campaign against the death penalty, before taking the shots. Toscani and Benetton instead wanted to demonstrate that the condemned were not numbers but human beings.
Banksy, Girl with balloon
The case where Banksy's artwork became a performance, and certainly a scandal, is the case of Girl with Balloon which we have already talked about here . While the work was being auctioned off, a mechanism caused the canvas to be torn to shreds by a paper cutter, making Banksy's protest against the art system a unique and unrepeatable moment.
Maurizio Cattelan, Comedian
In 2019, Maurizio Cattelan , an artist from Padua, made people talk about himself again with an irreverent and “desecrating” gesture typical of his way of working; at the Art Basel in Miami Beach, Cattelan hung a banana with scotch tape on the wall, giving it the title Comedian. Another artist, Datuna, one Saturday morning took the banana and ate it, transforming the work of art into a performance entitled Hungry Artist .
Pornhub and the “erotic” museums campaign
“Some people think museums are boring, but what if we told you they house a priceless collection of porn?” This is the incipit of the pornhub campaign titled Classic Nudes to show the “sexual” side of works of art, animating them in adult videos with explicit content; this campaign, according to lawyer Luca di Carlo (pornhub lawyer), ran out of steam, remained online for a specific period of time and then deleted itself, despite many speaking of a warning. But there was a complaint, that of Ilona Staler, aka Cicciolina, who denounced the Uffizi for having exhibited the series Made in Heaven accusing them of exploiting the image.
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