At least your death and this protest prevented other animals from being killed "for art". No "artist" will ever again be able to kill or torture living beings without remembering that "there was once the case of Natividad". They will all have to be very careful and conscious about what they do in public.
This page will - as promised once to Mr.Sancho - stay here as a memorial of the entire case, for all those who prefer to get the whole story and research the facts on their own. Nobody could ever confirm, that the dog was not killed. And we, who we know clearly from eye witnesses that it died, will keep on working to prevent senseless and even endorsed and "prized" animal abuse in future.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Rest in peace little doggy...
Last comment on this case from Mr.Sancho
"Costa Rican artist surrounded by controversy with a dog dying as part of his exhibit". This was the title of the news iteml 4 de octubre de 2007 in the La Nación Costa Rican daily newspaper.
Thirteen months after the birth of a campaign to gather signatures in protest, I would like to express to all of you my gratitude for the fact that you participated and that you spread the word about the petition. Its success, unprecedented in any Internet activity, is seen in the fact that, with your help, more than 4 million people have expressed their disgust at the acts of a pseudo-artist, carried out with the aid of his accomplice, the Gallery Director, Juanita Bermúdez and every one of her staff members.
Only three days from now, the man who abused the dog in the Códice Gallery in Managua will be ushered into the Museum of National Identity (Honduras) invited by the Organizers of the VI Biennale of Visual Arts of the Central American Isthmus (Women in Art "Leticia de Oyuela"). We must be consoled by the fact that we know we acted correctly in the face of an event which would have "died a natural death" in the archives of the local newspaper.
Although we have not been able to sensitize the patrons nor the organizers, Banco Promerica de Honduras; Banco Promerica por el arte salvadoreño, El Salvador; Fundación Ortiz Gurdián de Nicaragua; la Fundación Paiz para la educación y la cultura de Guatemala; Empresarios por el Arte de Costa Rica y la Fundación Fernández Pirla de Panamá, to make them understand why they should not allow this animal abuser to participate in the event, I know the pressure brought to bear to twist their arms has been very strong. Every one of them has earned the image that the world now has of them. In any case, the fact that the organizers were forced to state publicly that "The Association Women in Art "Leticia de Oyuela"and the Organizing Committee of the VI Biennale of Visual Arts of the Central American Isthmus will not consent to, nor permi,t the perpetration of any acts which go against human dignity, nor the exploitation, ill-treatment and abuse of animals as part of the proposed exhibits in the artistic, cultural event" is of itself an implicit admission of the acts perpetrated by their invitee, Vargas. Another point is that no one has been willing to bell the cat and give him his just deserts (a matter of civic maturity which neither the powers that be in Nicaragua, Costa Rica nor Honduras have shown themselves to possess).
The fact that Mr. Rodolfo Kronfle Chambers, one of the jurors who gave Vargas his 'passport' to Honduras, wrote to me on 29th October 2007 and said "I respect your right to debate and to argue on this matter. I believe that the world of art must learn lessons from this" is another implicit acknowledgement of Vargas' acts.
This is what we all wanted, for the world of art to learn a lesson.
Many thanks to you all.
Jaime Sancho
www.ea6gk.org
pd - The last I heard was that the winner of the VI Biennale of Visual Arts of the Central American Isthmus will be Guillermo Vargas – I imagine to "compensate him" for the global campaign mounted against him.
Sunday, 11 May 2008
Just a short remark - isn't it strange...
...that the in some posts and articles allegedly "innocent artist" who "fed the dog", is still undetermined to be guilty or not guilty?
Folks - if he - as he claims from the beginning - wanted to just "prove a point" and "set up" something, he would make damn sure, that there was a healthy dog presented to the public on the last day of the exhibit!
There was no dog presented.
There was not even one single photo made of "feeding the dog". How strange for an alleged "photography and multimedia artist".
There was not even one single statement about any "healthy dog" or any "escaping dog" or any "fed dog".
No, the solely and only statement of Vargas for as long as 2 months was: "the dog would have died anyway".
Any real artist, who would intend to "show the hypocrisy" in people, would make the showing up of the healthy dog in the end of the exhibit his culminating point - his "ha-ha, now you see how I tricked you".
There was no dog fed, and there was no escaping dog, and anybody who is just a little bit sane to think a few minutes more about the entire comedy can see this. If Vargas would be innocent in the way he claims ("set up killing"), he would be easily able to prove this already long, long, long months ago.
Vargas and his few supporters are such blatant liars, that it actually aches and makes one really, really nauseous.
The general goals of the petition
- It attracts the media to a case of cruelty, which is outstanding, because the "artist" was rewarded with prizes and is obviously sure to become popular through his idea of "provocation".
- Hopefully it will be able to stop this "artist" from going on and building a career upon such inhumanity.
- Additionally, it will stop possible unskilled followers, who may hope to become widely popular through killing and inhumanity, without being able to create any real piece of art worth to be mentioned.
- It is able to show, that cruelty and violence, no matter against which form of life, are not loved or welcomed in our societies.
- It gains, like it is online, attention for animal welfare and animal rights, considered by so many people unimportant, "unprofessional" or simply "silly".
Several big organizations already did attempts to stop this "artist", there is also still investigation ongoing by the WSPA and PETA, but so far there are no good news from Latin America, the officials still do not consider even more than two millions (right now:2388934) protesting people significant enough to change the list of participants of the Bienal. But at least one small victory was achieved by the WSPA :)
Until then, any sign more on the petition will help to prevent another endorsement of cruelty in the media and, hopefully, spare us in future to be confronted with more sick photos of tortured life and more of such unskilled and brute "artists" (like this student of Guillermo Vargas showed perfectly)...
Some food for thought for the "critical minds"
- If you are a "critical mind" why not checking this pages very closely? Instead of reading 2 sentences and assuming you know all facts?
- I am so saddened and tired by this entire case. I was thinking in the beginning (in October 2007!), that this guy just would be punished like any other criminal. But what happened? Even if I could speak with real witnesses, the same like Mr.Sancho, those guys are scared like hell, they are just simple hard working people like me, but not in such comfortable position, they are not thousands of miles away from Costa Rica and the "nice artist". This man is a psycho! Not one of the witnesses was ready to give out his or her name, they fear for their lives!
- Thus, we face a strange and sarcastically "funny" situation - even if we know the dog was tortured and starved, and even if there are enough further proofs through the insane behavior of both the gallery and the "artist" himself (I just say: permanently self-opposing statements; 2 months of no statement at all from the gallery in the beginning of this case; 2 months of the "artist" stating "the dog would have died anyway"; permanent harassment of all supporters of the boycott, even up to stalking certain people at MySpace - no wonder some of the support groups were closed again, we received enough scared mails stating "I cannot anymore! Those guys are scary! They are writing about Jason, the serial killer, citing the bible, trying to contact all of my friends, flooding me with e-mails! I stop to support this case, sorry..."), we face a stand-off situation - we cannot find the corpse of the poor dog, being thousands of miles away, but Vargas himself also cannot prove in any way that he did not kill the dog (except bribing and/or forcing some scared gallery-owners, who fear losing prestige and profits).
- At least the big animal welfare organizations actually did investigate the case, and now this "artist" will be watched and monitored in some countries. Both WSPA and PETA did real investigations, but sadly, the whole Humane Society's "investigation" was citing one of the many (self-opposing) statements of Ms.Juanita Bermudez, the gallery director. I support the work of the Humane Society and can understand that there is "not so much time", but this was definitely a bad job, or better say, no job at all, since you did not really look into this case.
- I know this is probably "not allowed" for official organizations, since the exhibition took place in Nicaragua, where no laws are protecting animals at all, but still, an closer "undercover" look at the entire case might be possible???
- To all those who still "doubt the case": just go home, lay down in bed, put a big soft pillow over you head and fall asleep again. Do not bother yourself with "unpleasant" things like crime or torture. This guy did the same as so many other criminals - he did a crime, which is so blatant and so outrageous, that "it cannot be true". That is actually the game he is playing. Instant punishment is there for the "simple crime", the clever criminals commit atrocities other people would not consider possible even in their dreams. This is the reason why this guy is so dangerous, and definitely should be watched, not only by animal welfare organizations.
- I fear for all the innocent people in Costa Rica and Nicaragua and Honduras. This only shows how hard the life in those countries really is. I really, really wish not only the animal welfare laws there to change, but simultaneously the human rights situation and the entire life for the poor people. If the people are cared of, if there are enough democratic organizations, if everybody can be protected from starving or crime, the situation for the animals will also improve. It is well known, that sick, starving and bad educated people will most likely not care about any other beings, they simply have no strength to do this, they care only for their own survival. I hope at least, that they can be prevented from "living" together with such a criminal like Vargas (and who knows what the "next thing" is he will be up to, and his next "pieces of art")!
At least ONE small victory :D !!!
Even if the artist was smart enough, to commit all those atrocities in a country which does not know any animal protection laws (therefore the "undetermined" status some pages claim to know about, even if Vargas is technically and physically responsible and guilty of torturing and starving an innocent being, he is not "legally guilty" in Nicaragua - thus making him even more proud of his actions and fueling more false "statements" and fairy tales... I just want to make some people remeber that the dog was not "well fed", as long as nobody did protest, only two months after the exhibit, facing the first 50000 signs of outraged people, the dog "suddenly" was resurrected, and it took another several months until it was "well fed").
But the WSPA (World Society for the Protection of Animals), not interested in all the strange claims and statements, made only after the boycotts grew this large, is taking further steps to at least protect any other animals from ever being abused or killed by this "artist":
"No excuses for cruelty
In 2007, artist Guillermo Vargas showed an emaciated live dog in a Nicaraguan gallery. Despite public outcry, the country's lack of animal welfare laws meant he faced no consequences. This year, when Vargas was invited to compete in an art show in Honduras, WSPA and member society the Honduras Association for the Protection of Animals and their Environment (AHPRA) acted to ensure this cruelty could not be repeated by any artist.
Elly Hiby, WSPA's Head of Companion Animals, commented: “Information regarding the treatment and fate of the dog used in the 2007 exhibition is inconsistent, but for WSPA – irrespective of the exact outcome – chaining a dog without food or water for public entertainment is a reprehensible abuse”. Our attempts to discuss the matter with Vargas' representative were met with silence.
But images from the Nicaraguan gallery were not forgotten. When Vargas was invited to enter the VI Central American Visual Arts Biennale (to be held in Honduras this year), an independent internet petition against the artist and his work attracted over two million signatures. WSPA sought a meeting with Business Owners for Art (Empresarios por el Arte), one of the sponsors of the Honduras Biennale.
In the meeting, WSPA's representative gave sound welfare arguments against the work shown in Nicaragua and formally requested that the Honduras AHPRA be invited to observe the Biennale exhibition.
After pressure from WSPA, the Honduras AHPRA and the public, the Biennial organizers have agreed not only to make AHPRA official observers but also to include new competition rules that prohibit the abuse of animals.
While we are satisfied that no-one will be able to abuse animals in the name of art during this forthcoming exhibition, stronger laws need to be in place that prohibit animal cruelty. WSPA and member society UCC are currently supporting a campaign, led by the Commission for Natural Resources and Environment of the Nicaraguan Assembly, calling for legislation to protect animals in Nicaragua.
You too can support the protection of animals worldwide by signing the Animals Matter to Me petition. This calls for a Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare, an internationally accepted set of principles about the treatment of animals that would encourage countries to improve their legislation.
Sign the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare >>"
The full text can be found here: http://www.wspa-usa.org/...vargasThis means - even if the guy can escape unpunished, he will be watched and all his future exhibits (even if we all hope there never will be any again) will be monitored by animal welfare organizations. And certainly, there will be countries which will not show his "art" anymore.
So, at least one of the goals of the petition was achieved :)
3 new facebook groups :)
There is already a Facebook group around this case since the beginning:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5668544393&ref=mf.
Now we were informed about the formation of 3 new groups:
In opposite to certain "artists" I do not have endless money / time / supporting friends on hand
If you are searching for most recent updates on this case, please always check the blog of Mr.Jaime Sacho. He is including English articles about this case, additionally to the Spanish posts (which can be quickly translated via Babelfish).
If you are searching for further real, non-commercial, and well researched facts (and not the 3-second-Google-look-up-"truths" you will find in so many other pages), this blog here provides more than enough, just browse through the previous articles on this subject.
Contrary to certain "artists", who earn seemingly plenty of money through their funny actions, I have to work in real life (as have my friends) and do not have endless amounts of time to constantly add more creepy articles about the insane antics of animal abusers. If you, after reading all this here (so far this blog contains more unbiased and well researched info on this case than any other English page I could find), still think you need "further proofs", so feel free to research them on your own. Not at my working time expense, sorry.
This page is not abandoned. If there is any bigger movement and change in this case you will read about it here, and you can read always even about smaller updates in Mr.Sancho's page. He is a hard working guy like all of us (except certain "fine art representatives"), and he sacrifices an incredible amount of time on this case.
Friday, 21 March 2008
Open letter of Mr.Sancho to the Honourable Minister of Art and Culture of Costa Rica
"Mrs. Maria Elena Carballo
Dear Minister:
It has come to my attention that Mrs. Claudia Rocio (WSPA) has made a statement to the effect that the office in Costa Rica "made direct contact with the Minister of Art and culture" and that the Minister said "…Mr. Vargas' presentation at the Biennale will be different to the one shown in Nicaragua, which means that this time no animal will be used, and for this reason the Ministry will not prohibit his participation".
In this connection, I wish to state the following:
It is out of the question that Mr. Vargas would devote himself to pursuing ANOTHER sick and starving dog through the streets of Honduras, to capture it and show it as a piece of art in the Central American Biennale in the coming month of November. No thinking person could conceive of this, and I am sure that you have not even contemplated the possibility of it happening again.
For you not to prohibit the participation of this person in the Central American Biennale based on something that he WILL NOT do, as opposed to something that HE DID, is in my opinion an absurdity. It also seems illogical that the president of Costa Rica, Dr. Oscar Arias, on 5th March last was the millionth person to sign the Universal Declaration on Animal Welfare, and yet you allow someone who openly ill-treats animals to represent your country. If you are not willing to stop him participating, perhaps it is Dr. Oscar Arias himself who should take the responsibility of doing it, bearing in mind the commitment he made when he affixed his signature.
ONE MILLION THIRTEEN THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND ELEVEN (1,013,611) people are calling for this petition to be acted upon, and the rationale is very simple: Given that Mr. Vargas is not going to be sanctioned for the ill-treatment which he inflicted on a living being in the Códice Gallery in Managua last August, neither should he be honoured by being chosen to represent his country in the 2008 Central American Biennale.
How many more people will have to sign before you pay attention to the voices of outrage coming to you from all parts of the globe?
Yours sincerely (...)"
Read the original post in Mr.Sancho's blog: http://ea6gk.blogspot.com/...minister-of-art.html
The general goals of the petition
- It attracts the media to a case of cruelty, which is outstanding, because the "artist" was rewarded with prizes and is obviously sure to become popular through his idea of "provocation".
- Hopefully it will be able to stop this "artist" from going on and building a career upon such inhumanity.
- Additionally, it will stop possible unskilled followers, who may hope to become widely popular through killing and inhumanity, without being able to create any real piece of art worth to be mentioned.
- It is able to show, that cruelty and violence, no matter against which form of life, are not loved or welcomed in our societies.
- It gains, like it is online, attention for animal welfare and animal rights, considered by so many people unimportant, "unprofessional" or simply "silly".
Several big organizations already did attempts to stop this "artist", but so far there are no good news from Latin America, the officials still do not consider even more than one million protesting people significant enough to change the list of participants of the Bienal.
Until then, any sign more on the petition will help to prevent another endorsement of cruelty in the media and, hopefully, spare us in future to be confronted with more sick photos of tortured life and more of such unskilled and brute "artists" (like this student of Guillermo Vargas showed perfectly)...
Friday, 7 March 2008
So HOW does the situation really look like?
So you have read dozens of diametrically opposite "facts" on the internet.
But did you consider to stay in touch with the Spanish based animal welfare supporters, who started this boycott in the first place and are in REAL contact with the reporters and eyewitnesses from Latin America?
If you want first hand informations, always check the blog of Mr.Jaime Sancho, who is the originator of this boycott: http://www.ea6gk.org/
The blog is in Spanish, which can be easily translated via Babelfish. But there is also a comment function, and Mr.Jaime Sancho speaks English well enough to understand ALL your questions and to answer them.
You can also keep track with this small page here, but it is just an English mirror and support page for all the work, that Mr.Sancho already did on this subject. I know that some people prefer this page to his, since I do not include any photos of horrifying events (on purpose). If you cannot see such photos, so you should rather check this page sometimes on updates.
But sadly, I have a very demanding real life and can only update if really urgent things or changes happen, or when I have a few hours extra time. So if you really wish to stay up to date on this case, I can only encourage you to check with Mr.Sancho's blog or to subscribe to it via RSS or E-Mail.
Thursday, 6 March 2008
Since October 2007: OIPA Italia supports Guillermo Vargas and lets HOAX unchanged as "official victory" on its page
If you did not know: OIPA Italia is one of the biggest animal welfare organizations in Italy. And they do - either due to chaotic management or unwilling to admit such an error - so many harm to the boycott-movement!
No there was no "victory", the boycott is still the same and the "artist" did never apologize. Why the hell NOT check with the Spanish based boycott supporters???
If you speak Italian, please protest again, since my English E-Mail was obviously misunderstood?
More about this subject here:
http://reiskeks-natividad.blogspot.com/...oipa-italia-send-via-e.html
OIPA Italia Homepage: http://www.oipaitalia.com/
And again: There was NEVER an apology of the "artist" in any way and he was NOT punished until today!
I have written about all more than once in this blog:
http://reiskeks-natividad.blogspot.com/...oipa-italia-send-via-e.html
The apology story is a very big (and very bad AND silly) HOAX!
If there were any updates on this subject, we would have posted them here immediately!
An alle Besucher aus Deutschland und deutschsprachigen Ländern
Ich habe festgestellt, dass es wohl ein Missverständnis gegeben hat irgendwo im Netz - es handelt sich immer noch um dieselbe Petition die Ende 2007 gestartet wurde (und die immer noch die Organisatoren vom Bienal 2008 nicht dazu bewegen konnte Guillermo Vargas von der Liste der Teilnehmer zu streichen, trotz mehr als einer halben Million Unterschriften).
Soweit ich weiß, wurde noch keine weitere Tierquälerei angekündigt, auch Herr Jaime Sancho hat in seinem Blog über falsche Meldungen diesbezüglich berichtet.
Allerdings, angesichts der Tatsache dass dieser "Künstler" bereits viel brutalere Nachahmer gefunden hat (einer seiner Schüler, namens Lopez, hat kürzlich Katzen und andere Tiere vor laufender Kamera zerstückelt und noch lebendig verspeist, hier ist der Link zum englischen Bericht darüber), kann es sehr wohl sein, dass weitere Tiere zum Opfer fallen, ob direkt durch Vargas oder seine "Studenten".
Ich kann also nur darum bitten, die Petition zu unterstützen und auch weiterzuleiten.
Comment moderation
Dear visitors of "Remember Natividad",
as mentioned before, we can clearly understand that many of you are furious or saddened by the happenings, nevertheless we will still proceed to delete any kind of rude insults and also all encouragements to kill or torture Guillermo Vargas (in all languages - Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, no matter, if we can translate it and it contains only hatred and lynch mob like encouragements, we will delete it, if we cannot translate it due to impossible language, we will delete the comment too).
Please note: I am not a native Spanish speaker, nor any of the people helping me here, thus we will delete any messages containing slang we cannot translate via Babelfish or other common online dictionaries, since we cannot sort out what the entire meaning of the comment would be in the end.
Of course we delete in generally any kind of SPAM comments.
This blog is to support humanity and animal rights and not to increase the amount of violence in the world, we have already enough of it everywhere.
Additionally, I have to remark that all comments are moderated, this means, when you write a comment it will NOT appear immediately below the post. All comments are checked first, and EVERY comment is translated, no matter in which language it was posted.
Please turn you anger and sadness into constructive action - support this boycott, inform other people. Start a page on your own. Join animal welfare organizations like The Humane Society or Peta (for the native Spanish speakers: there is Peta en Espanol), or start a movement on your own or donate for charity.
To those, who find there is "too much" support for animals - please support or donate to Amnesty International or the SOS Children's Villages. There is support for all living beings needed!
"Be the change you want to see in the world"
Mahatma Gandhi
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Hate and love cannot coexist in one heart
If I truly hate anybody, I will only be able to spread hate in the world. If i truly hate anybody I would forget my love for life.
The bison or buffalo is the ancient symbol of the Native Americans. It is the symbol of the Sacred Giveaway of Life, giving the life away to benefit others. Even if they may be evil. Even if they cannot come back from the darkness.
Answer to the Kathimerini.com article "Can blogs wag the dog"
Read the full (English) article in the Greek newspaper Kathimerini here: http://www.ekathimerini.com/...1_01/03/2008_93942.
Here is my E-Mail (send on 04.02.2008):
"Dear Sir or Madam,
I am one of the originators of the boycott movement, my page can be found here: http://reiskeks-natividad.blogspot.com/.
I write to you concerning the question of "Online Lynch Mob", which is a subject I had described in my boycott page not for one single time. Before I started supporting the entire boycott, I made sure via REAL investigations (speaking with the witnesses or with the Spanish based animal welfare organizations supporting the boycott from the beginning via E-Mail, Fax, Telephone, Instant Messenger or similar), that the incidents really took place.
This is the case. It was even proven again by the jury of the Bienal 2008 in Honduras, since they state "we will not exclude Guillermo Vargas, because there are no animal protection laws in Nicaragua condemning HIS ACTIONS IN THE EXHIBITION FEATURING THE STARVED DOG".
There was a great anti-boycott movement from the beginning, creating dozens of false pages to "prove" completely diametrically different "facts" -
that the exhibition never took place OR that the dog escaped OR that the dog was never harmed and took care of OR that all was a "fake media performance" from the beginning.
Sadly, there are official press statements of official people, which are diametrically opposite to each other. I clarified this in my page more than once, here is just one example:
http://reiskeks-natividad.blogspot.com/...vargas-admits-on-his.html
Additionally, I delete all harmful or violence supporting comments from my pages and remember the people again and again for which reason this boycott was started - for improvement in our societies and NOT TO FORM A LYNCH MOB.
Nevertheless, I can understand that there are furious reactions, since newspapers prefer to write non-confirmed and badly investigated stories, while I have spoken with people on telephone, who were in Nicaragua and made photos of the starving dog.
A. The Exhibition took place, and so does the Bienal 2008 in Honduras (it will take place in November, please see my page for further updates).
B. Mr.Guillermo Vargas indeed does exist, further information about him:
http://reiskeks-natividad.blogspot.com/...misinformation-basic.html
C. Considering reliable articles in big Spanish based newspapers a "hoax" only because they cannot be understood is something very strange for a Greek newspaper - would you be happily watching people from other countries considering your articles as "hoaxes" or "unreliable" simply because "that's in Greek" and "I cannot understand this"?!
D. What is happening to the freedom of expression in Greece anyway? "Government considering blog-censorship"?? Thank goodness there are blogs, if "real" newspapers cannot sort out what is happening in the world.
E. I have friends in Greece who support my boycott, AFTER I explained them how everything is REALLY looking like.
F. Genocides would not happen anymore, if those who are suppressed and victimized would have a blog and thus a voice to speak for themselves! Only the speechless and helpless can be turned into "prey" for inhuman monsters.
Sincerely
The originator of the Remember Natividad Blog
(and just one of the supporters of this boycott)
I am simultaneously posting this mail in the Natividad blog. It is only a small page, but nevertheless we have 400-500 real new visitors per day."
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