vistaliving
Aug 9th, 2005, 03:03 PM
Chinese artist defends fetus artwork
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING — The Chinese artist who grafted a human fetus head onto the body of a bird defended it as art today after a visitor to the museum where it is on display in Switzerland filed a criminal complaint over the piece.
"It's precisely because I respect all life that I did this," said artist Xiao Yu. He said the bird and fetus "died because there was something wrong with them. I thought putting them together like this was a way for them to have another life."
Adrien de Riedmatten, 29, filed a complaint yesterday with the district attorney of Bern, Switzerland, calling for an investigation into the piece, which is on display at the Bern Art Museum.
"I want to know where this baby comes from and if it was killed for this work," de Riedmatten said. "We know about the problems of late-term abortions in China and we have the right to ask ourselves questions."
Swiss law enforcement authorities will investigate the complaint and decide whether to press charges.
Xiao said he bought the human fetus head in 1999 for a few hundred yuan (a few dozen U.S. dollars) from a man who was cleaning out a scientific exhibition hall. The glass bottle it came in had a handwritten sticker identifying it as a female specimen from the 1960s.
According to Xiao, it had no name or cause of death but bore a date, although he has lost the piece of paper and can't remember what it was.
"It was close to my birthdate though, I remember that because I thought it was coincidental," he said as he looked at a computer image of the piece in his Beijing high-rise apartment.
Xiao was born on April 22, 1965.
He said he assumed the fetus was miscarried after about six months, based on the development of its features and the condition of the head. He said it was unlikely to be an aborted fetus, because it predated China's "one child" birth control policy.
China launched the policy in the late 1970s limiting most urban couples to one child in an effort to slow the growth of its population, which officially hit 1.3 billion this year. Rural couples and some in cities are allowed two children.
Human rights group say Chinese officials sometimes force women to have abortions if they already have the maximum number of children.
Photos below.
http://www.universes-in-universe.de/car/venezia/bien49/plat1/e-xiao.htm
ASSOCIATED PRESS
BEIJING — The Chinese artist who grafted a human fetus head onto the body of a bird defended it as art today after a visitor to the museum where it is on display in Switzerland filed a criminal complaint over the piece.
"It's precisely because I respect all life that I did this," said artist Xiao Yu. He said the bird and fetus "died because there was something wrong with them. I thought putting them together like this was a way for them to have another life."
Adrien de Riedmatten, 29, filed a complaint yesterday with the district attorney of Bern, Switzerland, calling for an investigation into the piece, which is on display at the Bern Art Museum.
"I want to know where this baby comes from and if it was killed for this work," de Riedmatten said. "We know about the problems of late-term abortions in China and we have the right to ask ourselves questions."
Swiss law enforcement authorities will investigate the complaint and decide whether to press charges.
Xiao said he bought the human fetus head in 1999 for a few hundred yuan (a few dozen U.S. dollars) from a man who was cleaning out a scientific exhibition hall. The glass bottle it came in had a handwritten sticker identifying it as a female specimen from the 1960s.
According to Xiao, it had no name or cause of death but bore a date, although he has lost the piece of paper and can't remember what it was.
"It was close to my birthdate though, I remember that because I thought it was coincidental," he said as he looked at a computer image of the piece in his Beijing high-rise apartment.
Xiao was born on April 22, 1965.
He said he assumed the fetus was miscarried after about six months, based on the development of its features and the condition of the head. He said it was unlikely to be an aborted fetus, because it predated China's "one child" birth control policy.
China launched the policy in the late 1970s limiting most urban couples to one child in an effort to slow the growth of its population, which officially hit 1.3 billion this year. Rural couples and some in cities are allowed two children.
Human rights group say Chinese officials sometimes force women to have abortions if they already have the maximum number of children.
Photos below.
http://www.universes-in-universe.de/car/venezia/bien49/plat1/e-xiao.htm