One of the most influential artworks of all time is Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain, created in 1917. Famously, the work came into being when the artist signed the name of his alter-ego, R Mutt, on a urinal. This gesture–which asserts that art is what the artist says is art–has been the subject of countless studies, tributes, and parodies, both theoretical and lighthearted. Cuban performance artist Tania Bruguera, who is living in Queens this year as part of her project exploring “Useful Art,” wanted to spotlight Fountain’s utilitarian origins. So she made a copy of the piece and restored it to its original purpose–as a urinal, installed in a men’s room at the Queens Museum of Art. “You can see it,” she says. “And you can pee in it.”
Courtesy the artist and Queens Museum of Art
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