In the doghouse: Oleg Kulik’s zoophilia photos seized by police at FIAC
Posted by artreview.com on 27 October 2008 at 11:30am
By Christopher Mooney
“Circulez!” shouted a wiry man with a shaved head as he fixed a piece of electrician’s tape across the entrance to the booth of Moscow’s XL Gallery, barring access. “Ce n’est pas un spectacle!” But indeed it was.
It was day two of the FIAC art fair in Paris, around 4.15 in the afternoon, and visitors to the small two-storey section at one end of the Grand Palais were witnessing a public performance rarely seen in the contemporary art world. At its centre was From the Dustbin (2007), an installation of unframed photos by Ukrainian artist Oleg Kulik. As is often the case with Kulik’s work, many of the photos depicted simulated acts of zoophilia – naked men, usually the artist, pretending to couple with sheep, dogs, and, in one photo, a guy in a monkey suit, the latter in behind the crouched-over Kulik, whose face is contorted in a feigned rictus of rectal pain or pleasure.