Art Farm
Artist: Wim Delvoye
Year: 2008
Date of Action:
Region: Asia
Location: Shanghai
Subject: Political/Economic/Social Opinion, Violence
Medium: Installation, Mixed Media, Public Art
Confronting Bodies: Shanghai Contemporary Art Fair
Description of Artwork: Eight pigs tattooed with Louis Vuitton monogram logo presented as art to the Shanghai Art Fair.
The Incident: Wim Delvoye, a 43-year-old Belgian conceptual artist, used eight live pigs as his canvas to sell at a Shanghai Art Fair. The artist tattooed the pigs at a young age and tracked their shifting changes to the ink as the aged. The organization felt using live animals both as a medium and as a sellable commodity was unethical, particularly because in a previous controversial art show Delvoye displayed only the skin of the pigs he had watched grow, then killing and stuffing them for the price of about £106,000.
Results of Incident: No collaborations have since been had between the Shanghai Art fair and Wim Delvoye.