Christophe Muylaert

This work consists of a cylindrical sculpture in transparent epoxy resin, mounted on a white pedestal with internal lighting. Suspended in the center is a longitudinal human feces specimen, precisely positioned and hermetically sealed within the resin. The piece is a contemporary response to Piero Manzoni’s iconic Merda d’artista (1961), but replaces opacity and irony with transparency and illumination. While Manzoni’s cans concealed their contents behind packaging and language, this object confronts the viewer directly. The project explores how bodily presence, shame, and authenticity operate within contemporary art and consumer culture. By using human excrement as a material, it pushes the boundary between repulsion and fetish, between vulnerability and self-display. At the same time, it questions whether the value of art still depends on meaning — or merely on the aura of authorship. In a time when the body becomes ever more public — through social media, medical data, and identity discourse — even our excretions are claimed as aesthetic territory. The current photo is AI generated. The work still has to be executed.