Giant dog turd wreaks havoc at Swiss museum

It was Jawaharlal Nehru who said that, "the art of a people is a true mirror to their minds". I dread to think what he would have made of the American artist Paul McCarthy's 'Complex Shit', there is no accounting for what goes on in some people's heads but if art mirrors life, then maybe it's all one great big giant dog turd after all. But my tendency is towards a more optimistic reading, credit crunch notwithstanding - it's a wonderful life. Apologies for the do do story but I just couldn't resist it, thought something light would not go amiss (if you'll excuse the pun).


Inflatable artwork blown from moorings and brings down power line

• Jenny Percival and agencies
• guardian.co.uk,
• Tuesday August 12 2008 11:49 BST

The Paul Klee centre in Berne. Photograph: Jean-Pierre Clatot/AFP/Getty

A giant inflatable dog turd created by the American artist Paul McCarthy was blown from its moorings at a Swiss museum, bringing down a power line and breaking a window before landing in the grounds of a children's home.

The exhibit, entitled Complex Shit, is the size of a house. It has a safety system that is supposed to deflate it in bad weather, but it did not work on this occasion.

Juri Steiner, the director of the Paul Klee centre, in Berne, told AFP that a sudden gust of wind carried it 200 metres before it fell to the ground, breaking a window of the children's home. The accident happened on July 31, but the details only emerged yesterday.

Steiner said McCarthy had not yet been contacted and the museum was not sure if the piece (pictured here) would be put back on display.

The installation is part of an exhibition called East of Eden: A Garden Show, which features sound sculptures in trees and a football ground without goalposts. The exhibition opened in May and is due to run until October.

The centre's website describes the show as containing "interweaving, diverse, not to say conflictive emphases and a broad spectrum of items to form a dynamic exchange of parallel and self-eclipsing spatial and temporal zones".