In Art – what you see is not what you get. The verisimilitude of the art object fools us.

Despite the latest acts of vandslism, Anish Kapoor’s solo exhibtion at Versailles is still on until the first of November. Consisting of six sculptures installed in Versailles gardens and inside the Salle du Jeu de Paume, Kapoor exhibition investigates the notion of power and how it relates to our contemporary society. In this context, France seems to have fell into a grip of cultural fascism as a primitive fraction of people has the power to threaten the freedom of artistic expression in the country. In fact, Anish Kapoor’s Drity Corner, which dominates the skyline of the palace, has been vandalized again by abominable antisemitic slogans. Already attacked and restored in July, this time the artist decided to keep the graffiti to bear witness to hatred. The sculpture controversial sexual connotations unleashed a backlash from some conservative French commentators since its appearance in Sun King Louis XIV’s palatial seventeenth-century landmark.

The other works on display remain untouched. Starting with Shooting into a Corner, where iconic meaty blood-red cylindrical blocks fired by a canon create a brutal fresco, Kapoor’s exhibition continues throughout Versailles gardens featuring the sculptures C-Curve and Sky Mirror placed in front of the palace, Sectional Body Preparing for Monastic Singularity, in the Star Grove, Dirty Corner in the centre, and Descension beyond.

Sometimes works of art have the value of sociological statements. What happened to Kapoor’s sculpture and what is currently happening to Syrian historical heritage represent a particularly barbaric moment in contemporary history. The open question is how do we face it?