Duchamp's Urinoir

Alan Riding, cultureel correpondent in Europa van de New York Times werpt de klemmende cultuurfilofische vraag op of ook het met een hamer bewerken van een porceleinen urinoir kunst is als die pisbak zelf een kunstwerk is. Het gaat hier om de urinoir van Duchamp, die volgens de BBC als een 'mijlpaal van het modernisme' wordt gezien. 'If a urinal is art, can hammering it be, too? By Alan Riding. The New York Times. PARIS. A French performance artist was arrested for taking a small hammer to Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain," the factory-made urinal that is considered the cornerstone of conceptual art. The porcelain urinal was slightly chipped in the hammering, which took place Wednesday during the final days of a Dada exhibition at the Pompidou Center. The artist, Pierre Pinoncelli, 77, who urinated into the same urinal and also struck it with a hammer at a show in Nîmes, France, in 1993, has a long record of organizing bizarre "happenings." Police officials said that he once again claimed that his action was also a work of art, a tribute to Duchamp and other Dada artists who had made their name by challenging the very definition of art.' Lees verder: http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/01/06/news/art.php Overigens geeft Riding wijselijk geen antwoord op de door hem opgeworpen vraag.