Art Farm
Artist: Wim Delvoye
Year: 2008
Date of Action: September, 2008
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 were 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 in an exhibit called "Art Farm." The artist tattooed the pigs at a young age and tracked their growth as they aged. The art fair banned the work from the 2008 show. 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.