Artist causes furore with urinating man
Reuters

A potent mix of art, politics and money, all centered around an exhibition in Paris, has unleashed a furore in Switzerland's orderly society. A urinating man and ballot papers showing images of tortured Iraqis are among the ingredients of an exhibition by Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn which savages democracy in his country.

In a play called "William Tell", Morin mimics a urinating dog by cocking his leg against a portrait of Christoph Blocher, Switzerland's far-right justice minister and stalwart of the powerful Zurich wing of the conservative Swiss Peoples' Party (SVP). The SVP threw its weight behind a bill to slash 1 million Swiss francs (450,000 pounds) in funding to Pro Helvetia, the state-backed cultural body which supported the exhibition and has a budget of 34 million francs for 2005.

The bill was passed by the upper house of parliament, with critics arguing that rather than carrying out its remit of promoting Swiss culture abroad, Pro Helvetia is denigrating it. But the lower house rejected the motion with a slim majority on December 13, as greens and socialists rallied behind the cultural body saying a funding cut would equate to censorship.