International   

That surrealist conundrum and controversy

Angelique Chrisafis© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

Paris debates a peculiar question of the value of conceptual art

Paris: What is the true value of a urinal? Is it worth more if it has been attacked with a hammer and relieved into in the name of art by an elderly man who once chopped off part of his finger?

The surrealist conundrum would perhaps have delighted Marcel Duchamp, the French Dadaist who caused outrage in 1917 when he signed a porcelain urinal ``R Mutt,'' christened it Fountain and declared it art. But for Paris' law courts, it is proving more of a headache.

When the 77-year-old performance artist Pierre Pinoncelli arrived at a Dada exhibition at the Pompidou Centre modern art museum in Paris last January and took a hammer to Duchamp's seminal work, the French art world was aghast but not surprised.

The urinal may be the cornerstone of conceptual art, but Pinoncelli, who sees himself as a neo-Dada interventionist, had long claimed its spirit of rebellion needed a boost. Over a decade earlier, he had urinated into it and chipped it with a hammer at an exhibition in Nimes. This time, he cracked it and scrawled the word "Dada."

He was arrested and later given a three-month suspended sentence and told to pay the Pompidou Centre Euro 14,000 to repair the crack and Euro 200,000 in damages. But far from protecting France from the ravages of a surrealist saboteur, the ruling has sparked a debate on the value of lavatories.

Pinoncelli has appealed, bemoaning the huge sum that the Pompidou has requested. He claims his intervention has increased the value of the work as Fountain was an "idea" more than a piece. The Pompidou Centre says the urinal has decreased in value on the art market.

The court of appeal, which has already debated the market price of urinals and pondered the fundamentals of the 20th century avant-garde, has retired to weigh up "the very, very serious" question. Writers and academics have taken to publishing passionate arguments in the newspaper Liberation on the pros and cons of adding a personal touch to conceptual artworks.The writer Dominique Noguez said in Liberation this past week: "It's the Pompidou Centre who should pay Pinoncelli a substantial sum for his material and immaterial contribution to Duchamp's work."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Power struggle in Turkmenistan
Speaker sacked, arrested
Discovery returns after 13-day mission
Colombo accuses Tigers of seizing foreign vessel
Chaos at Heathrow eases
Nominations withheld
China tests security against terror attack
Top Taliban leader killed in U.S. air strike
That surrealist conundrum and controversy
Sudan accepts plan
Our thoughts are with those still in jail, say released Indian prisoners
Pakistan piqued at plot report
Sir Creek joint survey to begin on January 15

Copyright © 2006, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu