Do you remember when three Ultima Generazione activists threw paint at Maurizio Cattelan’s “Finger” in Piazza Affari in Milan last year? No? Not us either. There are now so many ecological protests against works of art that they have lost their appeal.
However, the three environmentalists are on trial for defacing cultural property. Well. And yesterday the art historian, with an honorary degree for television merits, Eight and a half and 110 out of 110 cum laude, Tomaso Montanari, was heard in the courtroom as a defense consultant. Who explained that works like the «Finger» (meaning public, urban art, not that kept in museums) «have their effect on the public as long as the public is not passive, but interacts with the work» . Which, in fact, can be defaced, defaced and vandalized.
We agree with him. It means that tomorrow we can interact with the Needle and Thread in Piazza Cadorna in Milan by hitting it with a hammer, especially since it has always disgusted us, or burn Pistoletto’s Venus of Rags (and in fact), or devastate the wonderful subway stations of Naples. Or would we really enjoy erasing Banksy’s environmentalist graffiti in Finsbury Park in London.
In the meantime, however, the contradiction (or the
stupidity) of wanting to protect the environment by dirtying a work, to clean which then requires two diesel high-pressure washers, the movement of various vehicles, hundreds of liters of water and solvents. Hopefully not polluting.