The piece forms part of an invetigation project initiated during a residency on the topic of religious fundamentalism and the need to “nourish ourselves with fiction, lies and fear”. Specifically, this project consists of an installation, a performance and a video work, in which the artist eats a copy of the Koran over eight hours as a critique of religious radicalism. “I believe in freedom of expression, provocation and artistic freedom, and I will certainly continue doing so today, tomorrow and always,” comments Abel Azcona, who has been threated by anonymous letters, emails and SMS.
“I believe in art as a critical tool and to create debate about the politics of identity”, adds the Navarran artist, who has received criticism ever since he started in performance art, “but they will never change my way of thinking and working; what’s more, the threats clarify my path, and I know that I am in the right.” For that reason he will go on using art “as a critical weapon for whoever wants to feel it and listen to it.”