Is Piss Christ A Genuine Work Of Religious Art? Jonathan Jones Thinks So

“The passion of Christ has always been associated with bodily fluids – it is true that artists traditionally stressed blood rather than urine, but they scarcely stinted on the revulsion of Christ’s fleshly death. Piss Christ can be legitimately compared to the horrible sores and green pus on the body of Grunewald’s Christ in the Isenheim altarpiece.”

Foreigners Scoop Russia’s Golden Mask Awards

“2011 will go down as the year when the Golden Mask truly went international. Non-Russian artists have won awards in the past, but this year was something special. More than two dozen foreign artists – singers, choreographers, conductors, directors and designers – received nominations for work completed during the 2009-10 season. Of them, five walked away with the coveted plaque.”

Berlin’s Reunification Monument Will Be A Giant Communal See-Saw

“The 55-metre, 330-tonne glittering steel wing can hold up to 1,400 people at any one time, but it needs at least 20 people to get it moving. The monument to unity is called Citizens in Motion, and is apparently all about people coming together. If you want to make it move, you have to get a group together and all go in a particular direction.”

Sympathy for Pharaoh (A Passover Meditation)

“Towards the beginning of the story, Pharaoh hardens his own heart (or it ‘is hardened’ in the passive voice). Following the sixth plague, however, Pharaoh seems to lose his nerve and God steps in, hardening his heart for him. ‘And the Lord hardened the heart of Pharaoh,’ Exodus 9:12 reads.” If God hardened Pharoah’s heart, was it fair to drown him in the Red Sea?