Gerard Couzens in Madrid
The
Observer, Sunday 30 March 2008
Article
history
Chaining up a dog and forcing
it to go without food and water in the name of art is a surefire way of making
yourself unpopular with animal lovers. The furore
created by Damien Hirst's pickled sheep and Tracey Emin's dirty bed pales into insignificance against the
international outrage Guillermo 'Habacuc' Vargas has
unleashed.
The Costa Rican has been
called an animal abuser, killer and worse over claims that a stray dog called Natividad died of starvation after he displayed it at an
exhibition last year at the C—dice Gallery in
Managua, Nicaragua. Vargas tethered the animal without food and water under the
words 'Eres Lo Que Lees' -
'You Are What You Read' - made out of dog biscuits while he played the
Sandinista anthem backwards and set 175 pieces of crack cocaine alight in a
massive incense burner. More than a million people have signed an online
petition urging organisers of this year's event to
stop Vargas taking part.
Vargas, 32, said he wanted to
test the public's reaction, and insisted none of the exhibition visitors intervened
to stop the animal's suffering. He refused to say whether the animal had
survived the show, but said he had received dozens of death threats.
Juanita Bermœdez,
director of the C—dice Gallery, insisted Natividad escaped after just one day. She said: 'It was
untied all the time except for the three hours the exhibition lasted and it was
fed regularly with dog food Habacuc himself brought
in.'