Italian Artist Invites Patrons To Defecate in Gold Toilet – He Calls It “America” – IOTW Report

Italian Artist Invites Patrons To Defecate in Gold Toilet – He Calls It “America”

Blame the Guggenheim, not this idiot artist.

PIX– Forget porcelain thrones – an 18-karat gold toilet in a restroom at one of the city’s most notable art institutions is set to open this week.

The gold toilet is fully functional and will be open to the public in more than just a viewing capacity on the Guggenheim’s fourth floor.

“Its participatory nature, in which viewers are invited to make use of the fixture individually and privately, allows for an experience of unprecedented intimacy with a work of art,” according to the museum’s website.

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Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan created the work, titled ‘America.’ He had announced his retirement in 2011, but came back to sculpt the gold toilet.

“Cattelan’s toilet offers a wink to the excesses of the art market but also evokes the American dream of opportunity for all—its utility ultimately reminding us of the inescapable physical realities of our shared humanity,” according to the museum’s website.

A guard will be posted outside the restroom, the New Yorker reported. Special wipes will be used to clean the gold toilet every 15 minutes.

30 Comments on Italian Artist Invites Patrons To Defecate in Gold Toilet – He Calls It “America”

  1. One of 45 communist goals as entered into the
    1963 congressional record.”Make art ugly and
    repulsive with no meaning”.What is the draw
    of human waste ???

  2. Go ahead and laugh
    The gold plate invokes the spirit of modern metallurgy, and freedom from the agricultural yoke of human existence.
    The plumbing invokes images of clean, cholera and typhus free water, representing our struggle with the microscopic, therefor spiritual and unseen world.
    The fact that it has been cleaned clearly invokes representational images of jealousy experienced by Italians for Americans for their ability to provide basic infrastructure to its people.

  3. I was recently in a home owned by a doctor. They had wonderful art.
    None of it was modern nonsense.
    The paintings were however, modern in production.
    Seeing these paintings was a balm on the soul.
    They were all beautiful, displaying technical expertise, and obvious love of craft.
    The paintings did not try to make me think about anything, nor did any of them try to raise my awareness on poignant social injustices.
    I was not remonstrated in the abstract for my imperialistic ways, nor was my systemic inherited racism and hetero-normative biases in any way referred to in allegorical parody or not, so I could experience chagrined embarrassment for being white on a visceral level.
    These paintings were of beautiful things, painted by artists that appreciate beauty, and have the technical chops to achieve mastery.
    Refreshing, to say the least.

  4. Reminds me of a favorite joke

    A man comes home late one night, drunk. “Where have you been?” asks his wife. “In the Golden Bar! They have golden chairs, golden glasses, golden beer, and a golden urinal!” This sounds awfully suspicious to the wife, who calls the Golden Bar. “Do you have golden chairs?” “Yes.” “Do you have golden glasses?” “Yes.” “Do you have golden beer?” “Yes.” “Do you have a golden urinal?” “Hold on.” On the other end, she hears “I think we have a line on the guy who pissed in your saxophone.”

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