Attack on 'blasphemous' art work fires debate on role of religion in France

The Guardian ^ | 18 April 2011 | Angelique Chrisafis

[csvset]

It wasn't an attack, it was performance art!

[Ronin]

Sounds good to me.

[Arkansas Toothpick]

Mr. Serrano, are you willing to paint a picture of Mohammed covered in pig fat to protest the evils of Islam?

[Army Air Corps]

...he said he was making a statement on the misuse of religion.

Translation: I wanted to be especially blasphemous because I thought it would be cool and edgy.

[TCH]

“Fundamentalism” ... is now defending the Catholic Faith against blasphemous images , etc... Note that unlike Islamic “fundamentalism,” Catholics destroy the “thing” — not the person.

But we all knew this was coming, where moral relativism is used to push a godless secular totalitarian “culture,” under the pretense of “tolerance.”

I hope the Catholic French will rise up, as they did at the Vendee during the Reign of Terror. It is time that Catholic France restore their nation back to the Church.

[muawiyah]

Yup, definitely performance art ~ kind of like being nekkid and pouring chocolate syrup on your head.

Frankly Serrano is not a real artist. What he's doing is running a con where the rubes who who imagine themselves to be intellectuals fork over the cash to be insulted and mortified.

I have no idea if "Catholic Fundamentalists" exist ~ maybe the Pope and a dozen or so other guys at the top, but I don't think they're at that age where they'd go bust up a piece of trash like this.

And "right wing"? Why is it the Leftwingtards ascribe all the talent at properly evaluating art to the "right wing"? Don't they have somebody over there who passed Art History 101 or something?

Well, maybe not.

[muawiyah]

The Vendee is still notably short of Evangelicals ~ you sure Carrier was a Catholic?

I don't think so.

[Gene Eric]

>> Translation: I wanted to be especially blasphemous because I thought it would be cool and edgy.

Exactly.

[Abin Sur]

Of all the strange crimes that humanity has legislated out of nothing, blasphemy is the most amazing - with obscenity and indecent exposure fighting it out for second and third place. [Robert Heinlein, Notebooks of Lazarus Long]

[TCH]

Run that one up the flag pole again... You lost me.

[TigerClaws]

They never pick Islam to do this with — and live.

[HiTech RedNeck]

One may debate how far a government ought to go when presented with such situations, but only the willfully ignorant defend what amounts to fighting words.

[pnh102]

Funny... muslims are always given a pass when they do this sort of thing.

[wjcsux]

Mr. Serrano, are you willing to paint a picture of Mohammed covered in pig fat to protest the evils of Islam?
It appears that you also have noticed that the Progressive Left doesn't do anything to offend the disciples of Mad Mo. I was thinking it was just me.

[GeronL]

Yes, we must all beware the Christian fundamentalists with their words while Islam is chopping off heads and crap.

These freaks sure have selective blindness bad.

[Abin Sur]

One may debate how far a government ought to go when presented with such situations, but only the willfully ignorant defend what amounts to fighting words.

I will certainly defend someone's right to commit blasphemy. Burning a Qur'an is blasphemous from the point of view of Islam...and you have every right to do it, just as you have every right to commit blasphemy in the eyes of Christianity, Hinduism, etc.

Needless to say, such acts shouldn't be supported by the government in the form of art grants...but neither should they be prohibited in any way.

(Of course, the government shouldn't be supporting the arts at taxpayer expense in the first place, but that's another subject)

[namvolunteer]

THE Yvon Lambert, the late 1970s enforcer for the Montreal Canadiens, is an art-gallery owner in Avignon? Sacre Blue! Les Canadiens avaient le bleu, blanc et rouge snot battus hors d'eux ce soir!!!

[namvolunteer]

THE Yvon Lambert, the late 1970s enforcer for the Montreal Canadiens, is an art-gallery owner in Avignon? Sacre Blue! Les Canadiens avaient le bleu, blanc et rouge snot battus hors d'eux ce soir!!!

[HiTech RedNeck]

I don’t know your gender, but if someone waved a Photoshop of your spouse appearing in a jar of pee in your face, wouldn’t you take that as fighting language?

[HiTech RedNeck]

snot is a french word?