To a Costa Rican artist, starving a dog to death is "art." Really.

[Psephos]

A Costa Rican artist, Guillermo “Habacuc” Vargas, tied up a starving, sick street dog as part of an exposition in a gallery in Managua, Nicaragua. He paid two street children to capture and bring him the dog, allegedly found on a street corner in a poor Nicaragua barrio.

He tied the dog to a wire strung across a corner of the salon, where it died. Habacuc’s exhibition included a legend spelled out in dog food stating “You are what you read,” photos and an incense burner....

Habacuc said his “art” was a tribute to Natividad Canda, a Nicaraguan burglar killed in Costa Rica by two rottweilers guarding property he had entered at night. The incident caused friction between the two countries. He told the daily La Nacion, “I won’t say the dog died. The importance to me is the hypocrisy of the people where an animal is the focus of attention where people come to see art but not when it’s in the street starving to death.”

http://american-european.net/blogs/costa-rica-news/2007/10/04/dead-dog-but-is-it-art/

More story plus pics here:

http://petloverstips.com/ForTheLoveoftheDog/news-updates/a-dead-dog-as-art-petition

EDIT: changed headline to more accurately portray the artist's nationality

[rpannier]

1. He can justify what he did all he wants -- It's still sick.

[Fridays Child]

2. That's just sadistic. I hope he's haunted by his little stunt.

[cali]

3. Fuck him, the disgusting asshole.

Too bad he wasn't charged with a crime. And fuck all the people that think this is art.

[Swamp Rat]

4. Notice he did it in Nicaragua.

¡Jódate cara de picha chapulín!

[Zookeeper]

5. I don't put the welfare of animals before people and art is....

a major passion of mine, but this is inexcusable and despicable!

I'd like to lock up the "artist" and slap every one of those gallery patrons who stood by while that poor dog was starving. This is horrendously decadent, regardless of whatever point Mr. Vargas thought he was making.

[Blashyrkh]

6. As poorly as it was made, it's still an interesting point.

"the hypocrisy of the people where an animal is the focus of attention where people come to see art but not when it’s in the street starving to death."

Outrage is only drawn from the tangible.

One dog chained up and starving attracts the sympathy of everyone, but the pets and animals that were mistreated, maimed and killed in your town last night suffer in silence.

It's the same as the "blonde white girl" syndrome. One white girl disappears and the world is in a tizzy. But thousands of non-white girls and white non-girls disappear every day without trace, but they do so in silence.

I do not endorse his actions concerning the dog, but I do agree with the point he is making. Outrage and sympathy is metered out based the VISIBILITY of the suffering, not the scale.

[Zookeeper]

11. But, he negates his interesting point by choosing such a poor...

way of making it.

If he is really creative and intelligent, he could have found a way to relay his message without torturing that dog. And then we get into the whole "message" issue: I get the political statement, but it's lousy art.

Also, the fact that horrible things are being overlooked is hardly news. I think everyone is aware of the "blonde white girl" syndrome by now, at least in the U.S. (I admit to not viewing this within his cultural context.)

Finally, I don't think there is a difference between people walking past starving dogs in the street and gallery patrons watching a dog die because they've been told they are looking at "art." It's an irony that I suspect everyone, especially Mr. Vargas, is missing.

[piedmont]

14. Uh, no. When he chained the dog up he actively starved it to death.

When the dog was on the street, it could have found food to survive. He confined the animal so that it depended on him to feed it, and he quite obviously never planned to feed it. That's monstrous, and on a whole other level from merely ignoring starving animals on the street which one does not have the means to feed.

[renate]

7. I believe in karma and suspect that Mr. Vargas will return as a street dog

To me the intention is crucial.

If he had found a dog that was truly beyond medical help, made it a part of an art display, and said "look how much you all care about animals when they're in front of you, yet thousands die every day from preventable causes and neglect," that would be one thing. This is another. It seems from the article that it's all about how dogs--pack animals whose nature is to defend their territory--had killed a burglar. Well, that's sad, but that certainly doesn't validate making this poor creature suffer while human animals looked on.

That poor little dog. I hope somehow it sensed that many people looking at its art "installment" felt compassion and love instead of a political statement.

[Clark2008]

17. He'd never return as a dog.

He's not good enough to evolve into a dog.

[LeftCoast]

8. It just shocks me that any artist can be so emotionally hardened

So hardened they'd let a dog starve like that for 'art'.

That is absolutely heinous and disgusting.

[EFerrari]

9. There's something wrong with this story. I don't believe it. n/t

[ima_sinnic]

10. links to contact info for galleries, petition to keep him out of big Honduran art event

I entered Guillermo Habacuc Vargas in Google and found links to outraged posts around the world, including this one with links to a couple of galleries that show this "artist's" work and a petition to keep him out of the Bienal Centroamericana Honduras 2008, for which he had been chosen to represent Costa Rica:
http://www.care2.com/c2c/share/detail/512155

[_testify_]

12. Well hope he understands that when he gets his ass beat

it's just constructive criticism.

[DS1]

13. Yo Quiero Taco Bell?

[judaspriestess]

15. Isn't he perpetuating how many people feel

about animals in many parts of the world? They don't care what happens to animals or the cruelty that many of them endure in their short lives. I in no way condone what he did but he pretty much pointed out the obvious to me.

[Clark2008]

16. My puppy was days from starving to death when we rescued him.

This is sick.

Can I starve this "artist" and call it art?

:grr:

[Zookeeper]

18. I'll be waiting for your installation, Clark..

and you can even claim to be making a statement about the "starving artist" cliche. I'm sure it would be highly celebrated by "hipsters" addicted to mental masturbation.

[RandomKoolzip]

19. Asshole.