Oh dear, Maurizio Cattelan has killed Banksy!
His new work Eternity, sees him fill a Tuscan garden with gravestones for 100 artists - some dead, some alive
The annual Forme nel Verde festival, held in the sixteenth century Horti Leonini gardens in San Quirico d'Orcia, Tuscany, is a celebration of young, contemporary art. This year the event will show works by 250 young artists and art students, hosting sound works, performances and a street art poster show.
However, one special, new commission by the Italian art prankster Maurizio Cattelan isn’t there to praise artists, so much as bury them. For his work, Eternity, Maurizio has commissioned young artists at the Academy of Fine Arts of Carrara to create around 100 gravestones for well-known figures in the art world – both alive and dead.
The work is a continuation of a project he began back in April, when he recieved an honorary degree from the Academy; the headstones, fashioned from Carrara marble among other materials, are dedicated to such well known artists as Banksy, Joseph Beuys, Caravaggio, Gustav Klimt, Piero Manzoni and René Magritte.
Banksy’s features one of his signature rodents, while Maurizo’s own grave is graced with a model of his own dog - defacating. Let’s hope this summer's visitors show this graveyard, which opens officially on 28 July, a greater degree of respect.
For a more tasteful take on this artist, get Massimo Bottura's Never Trust a Skinny Italian Chef, which features an interview between Bottura and Cattelan; for more on art worth taking a trip to see order a copy of Destination Art.