Colorful Pigeons in St. Mark\'s Square Stir Controversy

By LARRY ROHTER

They may not rank with the Bridge of Sighs or gondolas as Venice's top tourist attractions, but the pigeons of St. Mark's Square definitely have their fans - and protectors. That has been amply demonstrated in recent days as the result of an art project undertaken as part of this year's Architecture Biennale in Venice, in which two European artists have tinted some of the St. Mark's flock in gaudy colors.

The colors range from brilliant blues and reds to vibrant greens and yellows, not to mention royal purple. The sudden appearance of the pigeons of St. Mark'sâ€"considered so much a public nuisance that the local government made it illegal to feed them in 2008â€"in something other than the standard gray seems to have delighted the tourists. But it also seems, perhaps just as predictably, to have outraged animal rights defenders.

The project is the work of a Swiss artist named Julian Charriere, aided by a German photogra pher, Julius von Bismarck. In an interview with the Italian daily Corriere della Sera, Mr. Charriere said his objective was to cast a bird that is almost universally loathed in an attractive new light, giving anonymous members of the species a bit of individuality and character. “That way pigeons will be better accepted,” he argued. Animal rights advocates were not amused. “Are works of art justified as such even when they involve other, non-consenting living beings?” was the philosophical question raised on one Italian arts blog and answered roundly in the negative by some other bloggers.

Mr. Charriere defended himself by saying that his project had been carried out “without any danger to the animals” - in contrast to a piece at last year's art biennale in Venice which consisted of more than 2,000 taxidermied pigeons mounted above the entrance to the main Palace of Exhibitions and on pipes throughout the interior of the building. Despite Mr. Charriere's precautions, one blogger complained that “an initiative with so little respect for defenseless animals is to be condemned.” Perhaps no one in Italy has yet heard of Damien Hirst.