Recognized for his controversial sculptures into which he has injected blood and oil, Molodkin presented the details of his most recent creation, a safe inside a room in an empty place in La Raillère, a former spa on the outskirts of Cauterets, which houses a treasure of 16 works of art, connected to a mechanism that could destroy them if a daily guarantee is not received that Assange is still alive.
“We are not doing this to destroy this important part of art history, but to save it, just as we demand that Julian Assange be saved”declared Molodkin in an interview with the English newspaper The Art Newspaper.
An artist will destroy 16 works of art if he does not receive proof of daily life from Julian Assange
The work, named “Dead Man’s Switch”is a 32-ton armored space, specially built to house the paintings of figures such as Picasso, Rembrandt, Chapman and Sarah Lucas, that were donated by collectors and artists. The peculiarity is that this box is guarded by a mechanism that can be activated remotely to destroy all the content housed inside.
“There are two countdown timers that operate 24 hours a day. Along with them is a mechanism capable of destroying everything inside the safe in case Molodkin’s demands are not met and the WikiLeaks founder dies. in jail”reported the English media.
Digital timers are activated if daily confirmation is not received that Assange is still alive, the 57-year-old artist explained: “If no collateral is received, and the countdown reaches zero, the mechanism goes into self-destruct, turning the contents of the safe into dust.”
vault Dead Man’s Switch.jpg
Assange faces extradition to the US
The construction site draws attention shortly after the visit of Assange to the Superior Court of London next week, which may be the previous step to your extradition to USA, where he would face several charges, among them one of espionage, which entails a total maximum sentence of 175 years.
The charges concern the publication of many thousands of leaked documents about the wars of Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a series of revealing diplomatic cables.
Assange has been held in the high security prison of Belmarsh since 2019, imprisoned in a cell after having previously taken refuge in the embassy of Ecuador in London, where he spent seven years.
Source: Ambito
