This stunt reminds me of the show Bellas Artes that’s about a museum director struggling to cope with his new job.
In the third episode, an artist sets up an installation that uses a large, dead marine animal as a centerpiece to draw attention to the broader ecological neglect. The kicker is that not only is the animal quickly rotting, causing a huge commotion with the press and setting people on edge, but a large part of the intended artwork is the shit show that followed and anticipated as much. The artist wanted the whale to rot and stink up the place, to close the museum and for the media to have a field day. All the artist’s actions and intentions had led to this museum director’s epiphany of what the piece was really about.
And that’s precisely how I feel about this. People arguing about how the piglets were “left to starve” are missing the point. Stealing them is also part of the show.
That’s my take, too. I’m not a huge fan of shock art, but it’s a great way of getting a message across and get a discussion started that changes the way people think.
His friend being involved in the supposed theft without telling him is, I think quite clearly a sign that this was set up. Rarer than artists doing stuff for sick value is people breaking into a museum.
Fuck this pretentious asshole. He don’t give a shit about animal rights. Clout chasing tool.
This is evil. Unmitigated evil.
I’m torn here. One person is forcing 3 piglets to starve, which is evil, to bring attention to a practice that allows tens of thousands of piglets to starve, which is also evil. The potentially 3 dead piglets get the attention the artist wanted, and someone intervened to stop it. Now we’re criticizing the artist, and no one is intervening to stop the starvation of tens of thousands of other piglets. I feel like the point was missed, especially in this comment thread.
Agree. It’s a horrible act to draw attention to a horrible act millions of magnitudes larger. I don’t get how one could be angry at this and not angry at its more widespread equivalent.
I think that was supposed to happen, and the best outcome here. The piece is thought provoking and brings up the question why people would care about these pigs in the first place considering how little we regard the life of a pigglet (imo).
It is imperative that animals used for food be humanely slaughtered. This is horrifically inhumane and the animals are not being eaten.
Is a slow agonizing death really any worse than an agonizing life followed by a quick death?
Animals used for food should be treated humanely their entire lives, not just in the moment of death. However many would argue that raising animals for food at all is already inherently inhumane.
“The Animal Protection Denmark welfare group says that sows are bred in the Danish pig industry to produce about 20 piglets at a time, but only have 14 teats, forcing the piglets to compete for breastmilk, leading to starvation of many.”
There’s a difference between being forced to compete with your siblings for food and intentionally being starved to make a point.
Yeah. In one case you get rescued by an activist and have media write about you, and in the other you die in a factory and are thrown in the trash with many others.
Interestingly listening to an article talking about the hollowness of words, making unethical things seem ethical.
The piglets were being denied food and water and would have been allowed to starve to death.
Does Denmark not have animal cruelty laws?
“Stolen”. That’s not how you pronounce “rescued from a psychopath”.
Or it was all according to the artist’s plan anyhow.
Not that I would be surprised if the artist never cared about animal rights in the first place.
Yeah, this feels like just another of those artists who want to sow discord for fame, without actually caring about the real topic they throw under the bus in doing so.
only correct answer
Agreed.
