Kulik images impounded as ‘pornography’ at Fiac
Russian gallery directors handcuffed by police, but case dropped.
PARIS. French police seized a number of works by the Ukrainian performance artist Oleg Kulik on the stand of Moscow’s XL gallery during Fiac (Foire international d’art contemporain), the leading contemporary art fair, held in the Grand Palais, Paris, on 23-26 October.
The police were acting on a complaint of pornography brought by the French customs against photographs from the 1990s depicting Kulik performances, sometimes naked and sometimes simulating sexual acts with animals. Kulik is well known for his performances as a dog, notably I Bite America and America Bites Me in 1997 at Deitch Projects in New York, when he spent two weeks living in a heavily secured dog cage in the gallery.
While it is not illegal in France to show “zoophilia” (sex with animals), article 227-4 of the penal code states that it is illegal to show ‘violent or pornographic images…which could be seen by minors’…”
Kulik images impounded as ‘pornography’ at Fiac, The Art Newspaper
Andrew Frost
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