German artist seeking volunteer willing to die in the name of art

2008-04-23 11:15:12 (GMT) (WiredPRNews.com - Art)

Dallas, Texas (WiredPRNews.com) — It’s a known fact that artists, by trade and possibly by nature, are eccentric and see the world from a different perspective. What may appear as mundane and ordinary to one, may be a masterpiece of the most creative kind to an artist. In taking that theory to a new–and morbid level, German artist Gregor Schneider is looking to recruit a subject for his next piece that will essentially die for the art.

39-year old Schneider is a highly controversial artist who is seeking a dying individual to sit in his installation and take their last breath while on display. There are a few requirements that the subject would have to know and agree to. For one, the volunteer subject must fully comprehend the intention of the art exhibit as well as having something in common with Schneider. The family of the subject must also be required to give their blessing for the exhibit before the volunteer will be accepted and Schneider would tightly control the location and surroundings. “It would be a private atmosphere with rules about visitors,” said Schneider.

“Unfortunately today, death and the road to death are about suffering. Coming to terms with death — as I plan it — can take away the pain of dying for us,” artist Gregor Schneider, 39, told the German online publication called Die Welt. This off-beat idea has been a long time coming. Schneider is reported to have been devising the plan for 10 years.

Schneider has created a career of shock value with various other artworks that don’t quite sit well with viewers. According to the news website CBC.ca, “Schneider won the prestigious Golden Lion Award for sculpture at the 2001 edition of the Venice Biennale contemporary art fair with his evolving work Dead House ur: a labyrinth of rooms, secret passages and dead-end corridors based on his childhood home that he continually constructs, dismantles and rebuilds. Other notable artworks of his have also explored death and engendered a general feeling of unease among patrons.”

To date, Schneider is still shopping for a gallery that will agree to host the installation.