Am I the only one who didn't know anything about this?

... is actually the name of a squirrel who has apparently committed suicide in an assembly by Maurizio Cattelan (whose other works include, of course, His Holiness the Pope being crushed by a meterorite, etc. Am I the only one who didn't know anything about this?)

Sergei Bolmat, in his story “The Object” (in the recent collection 14 rasskazov), tells of a man who travels to Luxemburg at his wife's direction to hide a large sum of money in the bank and instead uses the money to buy an art piece that he sees in a nearby gallery. The piece that so bewitches him is this very “Bidibidobidiboo”. He writes to his wife from a hotel room and tells her that he won't be coming home because of this purchase, the title of which he has to check before completing his letter. After all, “Bidbidobidibidoo” is difficult to remember.

I'm not certain why he feels compelled to buy the piece. He's described as a fairly unremarkable man in his late fifties. Also he is aware that his wife will think the purchase is insane. I can only think that the story has something to do with the difficulty of supporting the arts, and the imagined patron is somehow likened to a squirrel who finds himself in an unfamiliar, squirrel-sized kitchen, and takes his own life.

Labels: Squirrels