The Art Newspaper

Swiss artist touches a nerve in Iceland

By Clemens Bomsdorf | From issue 193, July-August 2008
Published online 24 Jul 08 (News)

REYKJAVÍK. Swiss artist Christoph Büchel has infuriated citizens of Reykjavík by plastering posters around the Icelandic capital as part of the Reykjavík Arts Festival. Büchel used a poster for the right-wing Swiss political party SVP (Schweizerische Volkspartei) which shows three white sheep kicking a black one off the Swiss flag. He translated its slogan, “Creating security”, into Icelandic.

“[We] received a huge number of complaints about the posters, and demands that they be removed immediately. People felt they were racist, and in many cases they simply tore them down,” a spokesman for the City of Reykjavík, told The Art Newspaper.

A field with four real black sheep and a Swiss flag was also part of the installation. However, because of its remote location, few Icelanders found it.

In May residents of a town near Reykjavík staged demonstrations after the government decided that their area should accommodate refugees from Iraq.

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