Marco Evaristti (born 1963) is a Chilean artist who has lived in Denmark since the 1980s. While a trained and practicing architect, he is best known for hosting a dinner party where the main course was agnolotti pasta that was topped with a meatball made with his own fat, removed earlier in the year in a liposuction operation. Evaristti holds a master's degree in architecture from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts where he was a student of architect Henning Larsen. Through the years, he has continued working on private architectural projects as well as larger commission projects.
Architecture
His architecture works contain a blend of Scandinavian, Asian and Latin American approaches. He travels to other countries and embellishes the natural environment with colored dye as part of an ongoing project he calls "Pink State". Evaristti sometimes uses materials taken from nature, such as diamonds, gold, semen and blood, to create a psychological reaction in the viewer.
In 2001, Evaristti worked on his project "Terrorialista", which is a silver-patina bronze sculpture made up of twenty-eight parts that together form a complete human body. The pieces are all based on photographic images of human bodies that were blown apart by acts of terror by both sides of the conflict. The allegiances, gender, nationality, religion and every other feature that had identified the people in those photographs was now eradicated. Parts of this work are further explained in the Pink State.
On June 8, 2007, Evaristti draped the peak of Mont Blanc at the border between Italy and France with red fabric, along with a 20-foot pole with a flag reading "Pink State". He had been arrested and detained on June 6 for attempting to paint the peak red. He has stated that his aim is to raise awareness of environmental degradation.
In 2009, Evaristti exhibited his "Body Bags" project. This consisted of three body bags cast in bronze, each in a different color, to symbolize the three main monotheistic religions. He claimed the body bags were like the modern-day image of the skull and reminded people how fragile human life was. By making each resemble a different religion, he was trying to enforce the idea that no matter what ideas you believe in, your life will still end in death.
In 2010, Evaristti created his "Boxing Bag" project, in which he replaced boxing bags' sand stuffing with hair cut from Christians, Jews, and Muslims. He invited viewers to nudge certain bags aside to get through the pathway. He suggested that a viewer who hit certain bags had a vendetta against that religion.
In November 2022, Evaristti had his first solo show in Thailand at West Eden in conjunction with a concurrent show in Copenhagen with Galleri Christoffer Egelund.
In March 2025, as part of an art exhibition, "And Now You Care", three piglets were meant to starve to death as a statement to raise awareness of mass animal slaughter, and the deaths of 25,000 piglets everyday as a result of Denmark's meat industry. The stunt was criticized by animal rights groups, such as Animal Protection Denmark. The piglets were stolen by animal rights activists with assistance from Evaristti's friend Caspar Steffensen before they could starve. Evaristti was initially disappointed, but later said: "But then I thought about it for a few hours and realized that at least this way the piglets would have a happy life."
See also
- List of incidents of cannibalism
- Shock art