Artist Planned To Starve Piglets For Protest, Animal Activists Had Other Plans
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The exhibition, And Now You Care?. was at a former butcher’s warehouse in Copenhagen’s Meatpacking District.
The three piglets were called Lucia, Simon and Benjamin. (Photo Credit: X)
Three piglets were stolen from a controversial art exhibition in Copenhagen, Denmark, where artist Marco Evaristti had planned to starve them to death as a protest against mass meat production. Denmark, one of the world’s largest pork exporters, became the centre of heated debate following the exhibit.
After the animals were taken, the Chilean-born artist announced that he had abandoned his original plan, according to a report by Sky News.
The exhibition, And Now You Care?, opened last week in Copenhagen’s Meatpacking District, a former butcher’s warehouse. As part of the display, Evaristti had confined three piglets in a cage filled with straw. The exhibit also featured large-scale paintings of the Danish flag alongside images of slaughtered pigs.
Who took away the piglets?
The piglets, Lucia, Simon and Benjamin, have been taken away by animal rights activists, said Evaristti, claiming that his friend Caspar Steffensen assisted them.
At first, Evaristti called the police on Saturday to report that the piglets had been stolen from the exhibition, forcing him to shut it down. “I was very disappointed when Caspar told me on Tuesday that he was involved in the theft,” Evaristti said. He has even claimed to have got hate comments on his email.
Evaristti changed his mind after a few hours realising that the three animals will have a “happy life” this way.
Copenhagen police officials said reports were received by them about pigs being stolen from the exhibition, which had a makeshift cage build up with shopping trolleys.
Why it matters?
Daily, nearly 25,000 piglets die in the Danish stables, said Birgitte Damm, chief consultant for farm animals and mink for Animal Protection Denmark.
Damm added that several of them die from starvation since Denmark’s sows are bred to birth 20 piglets, but they only have 14 teats, The New York Times reported.
Ever since Evaristti’s exhibition came into the spotlight, several animal rights groups expressed concern over it, stating that they did not approve of animal abuse.
On his decision to get three piglets set free, Steffensen shared that he did so after his daughter begged him to make sure that they did not die.
After being approached by an activist, Steffensen allowed them into the vicinity “secretively” on Saturday and took the piglets away.
Evaristti next plans to revive the exhibition by somehow managing dead piglets from meat processing plants.
Speaking to a local media outlet, he said he was in the process of acquiring animals that have “died of starvation or other terrible circumstances in agriculture.”
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