I have a commitment crush on Pierre Pinoncelli. The guy has real dedication to the cause.

So Marcel Duchamp took this urinal (<--) and entered it into an art show in 1917 as a statement. It was one of his readymades; essentially found art. It was later on voted the most influential artwork of the 20th century for it's provocativeness and ability to, as Duchamp said, "de-deify" the artist.

However, it has pissed off (ahem) a lot of people along the way. I mean, it's a urinal under the guise of high art. It was *really* not liked by my man Pierre Pinoncelli who in 1993 visited it* on exhibition in Nîmes and urinated in it. He was taken to court and fined £140,000. Not much for intentionally damaging a piece of art valued at €2.8m (current), but terribly steep for taking a leak.

But, oh, that did not stop our Pierre Pinoncelli! He came back in 2006 to the Pompidou Center in Paris where the urinal was on display and attacked it with a hammer!! At age 77!! Rawr. This time the courts weren't quite as amused. They fined him €200,000 for the crime and €14,352 for material damages. (Which in and of itself is kind of funny... €14,352 to repair a urinal? What is this, the Pentagon?)

(*They lost it after the first show; it probably got thrown out as garbage. Replicas are in lots of museums now. I saw one @ MOMA I think. It actually *did* look like a urinal. :-P

To be sure, this is no ordinary crotchety old man. A retired seed merchant who now identifies as a performance artist, Msr. Pinoncelli has also lived naked in a barrel, cut off his own fingertip, and sprayed a then-culture minister with red paint. He's a provocateur, no doubt. What I really like about him, as I said, is his dedication to the cause. I like how much he loathes this toilet.

Now, there have been many instances of art vandalism, and indeed some museums have taken taken various steps to combat this. But for some reason, Msr. Pinoncelli's vandalism really speaks to me. As someone who flits back and forth between deep and wavering enthusiasms for art, fashion, and technology, I am really impressed by someone who spent decades defiling just one thing. And a toilet no less...

As someone who sits firmly outside the art establishment, I definitely am a fan of thinking outside the box / museum / status quo. Therefore, I really enjoy stuff like this. I don't know how I'd feel about it if it was a show I'd curated / arranged / paid for, but since I haven't, I just watch and enjoy from the outside. And that's #1 in my book! ;-)

Side note: this article tells the story best. Enjoy!