Maurizio Cattelan's Taxidermy Art: Ethical Questions Persist

Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan, known for provocative installations, has used taxidermy for over a decade, suspending dead horses and staging squirrel suicides. His 1997 Venice Biennale piece Tourists featured 200 stuffed pigeons in the Italian pavilion, initially unnoticed until visitors stepped on painted excrement; live birds soon flocked in, highlighting Venice's over-tourism. The Ballad of Trotsky (1996) referenced Leon Trotsky's assassination, while Bidibidobidiboo (1996) depicted a squirrel suicide in a kitchen, its title from Cinderella's magic words. Untitled (Kaputt) (2013) showed five horses with heads stuck in a wall, inspired by Curzio Malaparte's World War II story of horses trapped in Lake Ladoga. Taxidermy's history spans from 16th-century Dutch merchants preserving bird skins to Victorian anthropomorphic scenes by Walter Potter. Ethical concerns arise as Cattelan does not disclose sources of his animals, prompting protests. Other artists like Damien Hirst, who killed nearly a million animals, face similar criticism. Sarina Brewer uses only natural deaths and roadkill, while Cai Guo Qiang employs realistic copies. The debate over taxidermy's cruelty versus creative freedom continues, with no resolution in sight.