NYC museum invites viewers to use 18-karat gold toilet

Sep 17, 2016, 00:34
NYC museum invites viewers to use 18-karat gold toilet

If you like art that's as literal as can be, then you will adore Italian sculptor Maurizio Cattelan's fully functional gold toilet sculpture at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City. Yes, if you so wish, you can defecate into Cattelan's luxury appliance, fulfilling your morose dream to shit on a piece of contemporary art. All you have to do is pay standard museum admission, and away you go.

According to Fox News, the golden thrown will require cleaning crews to use medical wipes to clean The Toilet after each user, regularly steaming and polishing it to keep the 18-karat glimmer in check. Starting Friday, September 16, a guard will be standing outside the door to answer questions and letting visitors use it one by one.

But what are we actually to make of what appears to be a simple golden toilet masquerading as art?

As an art historical gesture, "America" references Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (1917), a urinal presented as sculptural readymade.

The museum also highlighted the intimate and "participatory" nature of the sculpture and its ability to serve as an intimate reminder of the "inescapable physical realities of our shared humanity".

The, ahem, interactive exhibit has been installed in one of the Guggenheim's public bathrooms, reports the New Yorker.

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Cattelan, 55, is known for his provocative sculptures, including La Nona Ora (The Ninth Hour), which depicted Pope John Paul II floored by a meteorite. He added: "When I saw it in there the other day for the first time, I cried". "I'm happy because it's not on a pedestal, it's not in a gallery", he told the Times.

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