Artist Gets Museum Show, Whether He Likes It or Not

A New England museum will display an artist's work against his will, the New York Times reports. Swiss provocateur Christoph Büchel, who recreates environments for visitors to wander through, shut down his show at the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art after a squabble over budget constraints. But the museum is defiantly opening the exhibition anyway—wrapping pieces with giant tarps until a court gives the nod.

Büchel's installation, called "Training Ground for Democracy,” juxtaposes the likes of a movie theater, house and voting booth with a war landscape. The museum cut Büchel off when he requested a burned and bomb-damaged jet fuselage to be hung from the ceiling. Some observers speculate Büchel's balking is a stunt and "the final act of the work itself." (More Christoph Buchel stories.)