Maurizio Cattelan, the Italian provocateur known for his art world stunts and pranks, is taking confessions from sinners in the United States. The Confessional, the artist’s latest performance artwork, asks the guilt-ridden to call a hotline and divulge their wrongdoings to the artist.
The hotline, which opened on April 2nd and can be dialed by anyone in the U.S. at +1 601-666-7466, will remain open through April 22nd. Cattelan will choose a number of confessions to be livestreamed on April 23rd, when the artist-as-priest will absolve these sins.
Cattelan’s performance ushers in the return of La Nona Ora (1999), a wax sculpture featuring Pope John Paul II reclining on a red carpet, his bottom half apparently smashed by a meteor. The title, which translates to “the ninth hour,” alludes to the death of Jesus Christ on the cross. London-based online platform Avant Arte has released a miniature version of the sculpture in an edition of 666.
“Catholicism is something you grow up inside, even if you try to step out of it. It’s belief, theater, control, comfort, all at once. I’m not trying to defend it or attack it,” Cattelan told the Guardian. “I’m interested in the images it produces and the tension they carry. If someone feels offended, it probably means the image is still alive.”
At first, Cattelan simply created a sculpture of the pope holding a crucifix. “When it was finished, and I stood in front of it, I felt as if something was missing, that the piece was not complete,” he told Sculpture magazine in 2005. “What it needed was very simple: It lacked drama and the capacity to convey the feeling of being in front of something extraordinary and powerful. It didn’t have the sense of failure and defeat.”
The original La Nona Ora certainly sparked that drama when Cattelan revealed the sculpture in 1999. In 2000, a pair of Polish politicians removed the meteorite from the sculpture while it was on display at the Zachęta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw. As with many of Cattelan’s works, the outcry and controversy created a lucrative buzz. It sold for $886,000 at Christie’s New York in 2001. Three years later, Phillips, de Pury & Company auctioned another version for $3 million.
