The British sculptor Anish Kapoor says that he will begin the process of transforming his vandalised sculpture Dirty Corner tomorrow (21 September) as part of a new “artistic intervention”. A series of slogans, some of them anti-Semitic, were painted 5 September on the cavernous piece and surrounding rocks on display at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris.
Phrases such as “Christ is King in Versailles” and “disgust, dishonour, treason, Satanism” were daubed on the controversial work which remains on show until 1 November. Palace of Versailles officials said in a statement issued 18 September that “[the sculpture], which was recently vandalised, will be subject in the coming days to an intervention to hide the damage, under the artist's supervision.”
However, a court in Versailles ruled this weekend that the anti-Semitic graffiti be removed immediately after Fabien Bouglé, a local right-wing councillor, filed a complaint with the public prosecutor against the artist and Catherine Pégard, the president of Versailles. Bouglé took legal action against the pair for “inciting racial hatred, public insults, and complicity in these crimes [for leaving the graffiti]”.
“From my perspective, this [the court decision] is a triumph for the racists. The right thing is to carry on,” Kapoor tells The Art Newspaper. “We will start working on Monday [21 September]; this will be an act of transformation which turns the nastiness into something else. I want something active, not reactive.” The artist says that President François Hollande backs his decision to leave the "marks of hatred" on view for the time being.
The 60-metre long work has been attacked three times. The work was first damaged in June when vandals splashed the piece with yellow paint. A few days after the second attack, the work was defaced again when the phrase “Respect Art as U Trust God” was painted in pink on the 33-foot-high sculpture.
UPDATE: According to our sister paper Le Journal des Arts, black sheets were placed over the graffiti on 19 September after the court ruling.
UPDATE 23 September: Kapoor issued a statement, saying: "The [court] judgment was not passed against me, the artist, but against Catherine Pégard, president of the Chateau de Versailles. I was not cited in this litigation. Furthermore, this judgment has no effect on me or my ability to modify the sculpture as I see fit, as the author of the work. As a matter of record, I have made it clear from the start of these sad events that it was always my intention to transform the racist messages of hate inflicted on the work into something positive."