Maurizio Cattelan, Zoe Saldana join iconoclastic Vatican Biennale exhibition inside women’s prison

By COLLEEN BARRY
Associated Press

VENICE, Italy (AP) — A pair of nude feet — dirty, wounded and vulnerable — are painted on the façade of the Venice women’s prison chapel. It is the work of Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and part of the Vatican’s pavilion at the Venice Biennale in an innovative collaboration between inmates and artists. That Cattelan is the lead artist is striking, given that his provocative life-size wax statue of Pope John Paul II lying on his side, crushed by a massive meteorite, shocked Catholics when it was displayed at the 2001 Biennale. The Vatican’s culture minister said the Vatican did not want to shrink from artworks or artists that might be considered iconoclastic, or critical of institutions like the Catholic hurch.