Piglets to Starve to Death in Art Exhibit

An artist aims to raise awareness of the suffering caused by modern pig production with an art installation that opened Friday. 

The central exhibit at Copenhagen's “And Now You Care” exhibition is a makeshift cage created with shopping carts containing three piglets. As the exhibition opened Friday evening, they were still fine, but they will not be given food and drink, and can be expected to starve to death within a few days. 

Marco Evaristti (left) is courting controversy to make a point in Denmark, where about 25,000 piglets die daily as a result of the conditions in which they are bred.

The Chilean-born artist says on his Instagram page that the exhibition “is a confrontation with Denmark's bloody reality” in slaughterhouses, and that he urges people to reduce their meat consumption and support agriculture that improves animal welfare.

Denmark's largest and oldest animal welfare organization, Animal Protection Denmark, says it is grateful for Evaristti's interest in the issue, but disagrees with how he wants to convey it.

“We completely understand the indignation” of the artist, said Birgitte Damm, a spokesperson for the organization. “But we do not agree that three piglets, three individual living beings, should be starved and prevented from drinking until they die from it. It is illegal and it is abuse of the animals”.

It’s not Evaristti’s first controversial project. One of his projects included goldfish in blenders, tempting viewers to press the button and create goldfish soup. 

In 2006 he used some of his own body fat removed via liposuction to prepare meatballs, and then ate some of them. He described that project called “Polpette Al Grasso Di Marco” as a critique on people overconsuming and then buying their way to slimness with liposuction, and at the same time an attempt to transcend the taboo of cannibalism.

On Sunday, Sean Baker’s "Anora", a Cinderella-like fairytale of a sex worker’s whirlwind romance with the free-spending, reckless son of a Russian oligarch took home five Oscars – Sean Baker won not only Best Director but also Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay and Best Film Editing, and Best Actress went to Mikey Madison who portrayed the titular sex worker in the said movie. 

The small-budget film won acclaim both in Hollywood and Moscow for its sharp, unflinching portrayal of power dynamics and class struggle, earning particular praise for its authentic Russian dialogue. 

More so, the film’s very presence at the Oscars is a victory for Russian culture. 

“Russian culture can’t be cancelled. Russia itself can’t be cancelled”, wrote Sergei Markov, a prominent Russian commentator, in a post on Telegram. “Sooner or later, the west will have to come to terms with Russia”.