Planned execution by mouse click | rat artist wants to be culled – IMAGE

Freiburg – This art project will ensure definitely stir

On Saturday 19 clock the artist Florian Mehnert (44) via webcam shows live images of a white lab. -Rat.

On March 25, they should likewise by 19 clock, are fair game. Then, each allegedly shoot by clicking on them, who has a computer or a smartphone.

“11 days” is the art project. Mehnert wants to draw attention to his own words, the global digital surveillance, the use of combat drones and the FPS-culture.

Mehnert BILD: “Art is not to kill the rat. It’s about eleven days. It will be discussed how we deal with the fact that we are permanent, worldwide and continuously monitored. “

And he has a 0.6 x 1.50 meter box with shot-device built on legs. It sits the white rat. At the bottom is scattered, a pipe, a branch and lining. A camera films the whole thing and transfer it to Mehnert’s website.

There, every Internet user can log in as a potential shooter in the installation. But until March 25 will disable the Weapon .

Vergrößern

The experimental setup from the outside: How long did the rat to live

Photo Florian Mehnert

Florian Mehnert: “can login there really any. This is very straightforward. . Without much information and anonymous “

As a user, you will see only run Estuary and on the final day of shooting shared rat

Mehnert on.: “It’s a bit like being in the virtual world of a first-person shooter game. The lower our inhibitions. The installation offers a game on, which can end up with a real sacrifice. “

Because the gun is loud Mehnert be focused in any case on 25 March. The artist is convinced that an internet user then will shoot with the mouse – like a first person shooter game.

The artist: “It does no trigger the device, but I reckon. Hope dies last. Perhaps the rat survived yes. “

Vergrößern

If he wants to leave the rat actually kill in the end? Or bluffing Florian Mehnert just to get attention

Photo: Florian Mehnert

The artist has become a flood of protest-mails and even received a death threat on the Internet. Parallel runs on its side a poll on whether the animal shall die. More than half of the participants want them to survive.

Mehnert: “In the emails, people engage more on the animal than for personal liberty or children in conflict areas. You should write to the government and not me! “

Whether he’s just about the provocation or whether he is serious, until the final day remains his secret.

The project is similar to an experiment of two Berlin artists almost three years ago. At that time they let the public vote, if a lamb to be beheaded by a guillotine.

In the end, the whole thing was a huge bluff. The artist had never intended to kill the lamb. They explained their project still to success and attacked among others, the animal rights activists. The rat can therefore still hope …

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