Elmgreen & Dragset and Prada Marfa Vandal Speak Out

Like Ballroom Marfa, Elmgreen & Dragset are not happy with the latest vandalism to their Prada Marfa installation. Comparing the culprits to the Florida artist who smashed an Ai Weiwei vase last month, the duo told the Arts Newspaper that “these acts of vandalism have nothing to do with political activism—they are only symptoms of some disturbed minds’ personal vanity.”

For his or her part, the alleged vandal, guerrilla artist 9271977, reached out to the Big Bend Sentinel, calling coverage of the act “very skewed and misinformed.”

I wish that it was analyzed and investigated as an installation it was. Everything was hand selected, painted, built, researched. The quotes were powerful. The questioning of TOMS and the state of America was powerful.

Elmgreen & Dragset, meanwhile, seem unlikely to appreciate 9271977’s point of view:

It is crazy that we have come to a point in our culture where some individuals in their insane egomania, eager to obtain a bit of attention, start attacking other artists’ works.