By Lalinda De La Fuente

People starve themselves and call it art. People splash some red paint on a canvas and call it art. Brinks, a four-year-old Labrador retriever, slobbers on windows and his owner has even packaged it as art. Killing though would be considered by few as a legitimate artistic expression.

At the Costa Rican Biennial of Visual Arts 2007, six artists were selected to represent their county at the larger Central American Biennial of Visual Arts 2008 to be held in Honduras.

A panel of judges chose from high quality works to select their representatives, one of which was Guillermo Vargas Habakkuk. But Habakkuk did not wow the judges with whimsical paintings or intricate sculptures. Rather, he killed a dog.

According to reports, Habakkuk commissioned local children in the Costa Rican district of Managua to help him capture a stray dog. Each child received compensation of 10 Costa Rican colones, which is nothing more than a few cents in U.S. dollars.

Habakkuk then tied up the dog and left it on display while it died of starvation. The “art” was watching the helpless canine die.
Although some called for the release of the dog, named Natividad, which translates to nativity or birth, Habakkuk refused. And so, the dog that was named for birth died.

Currently, there is an online petition circulating calling for the festival to not admit Habakkuk. There are currently 676,557 virtual signatures. To view and sign this petition please visit www.petitiononline.com/ea6gk/petition.html.