Arcevia, Alt artist's Madonna pig is deemed blasphemous and is being made to be removed from exhibition

A Madonna covered with clippings, receipts, and correspondence and accompanied by the inscription “porca”: this was the work that artist Alt had presented for the 2018 edition of AR[t]CEVIA, a contemporary art festival held annually in Arcevia, Marche, which this year runs through Oct. 14. The work had been causing an uproar since August, when it was unveiled: the local community had clamored for its removal, and the exhibition management had agreed, but it had remained in the exhibition venue anyway (albeit obscured), in the hope that it could be reintroduced for public viewing. No dice: after yet another request, the artist, in agreement with Laura Coppa, artistic director of AR[t]CEVIA, decided to permanently withdraw the work from the event.

The decision comes after protests from some visitors, while the removal order came directly from the mayor of Arcevia, Andrea Bomprezzi. Laura Coppa, who, moreover, is also cultural councillor of the municipality of Arcevia, had already tried in August to explain the reasons for the exhibition of the work in an open letter: “As curator of the exhibition I cannot place censorship, but at the limit I mediate between artist and public, in order to safeguard both and to leave, always to both the freedom to express themselves, the freedom to observe or not to observe and to form their own opinion: reason why I do not enter into the merits of the various perceptions of the work.” For the work, moreover, a special location had also been envisioned, hidden behind a wall, and with the entrance highlighted by appropriate signage indicating that the contents of the work might offend the sensibilities of someone in the audience.

The work, according to the artist’s own explanation, is a reflection on the role of the Madonna within the Christian religion: for Alt, the Virgin, a religious idol invented by males, represents the negation of women’s femininity because she embodies the stereotype of what women were supposed to be according to a profoundly masculinist society. Moreover, as the artist explained to the Marche newspaper CentroPagina, the Madonna is “a money machine,” hence the decision to color her gold and have her hold not a child, but a “booty” in the form of promises of eternal salvation in return for payment. Our Lady’s virginity itself, according to Alt, “stems from the mind of the male who sees woman as an object of his property, and Our Lady embodies this concept in the most absolute way.” In the overall economy of the work, the inscription “pig” represented a final corollary, a summary of the reasons why religion, according to Alt, would make the Madonna “pig” as an economic tool and source of idolatry.

The artist protested the decision to have the work removed: “a believer should not object if outside places of worship, there are other forms of thought, which may also manifest themselves in ways antithetical to their own.” However, interventions in its defense were to no avail: the public will no longer be able to see the work.

Pictured is Alt’s work removed from AR[t]CEVIA.

Arcevia, Alt artist's Madonna pig is deemed blasphemous and is being made to be removed from exhibition

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