Guillermo Vargas

Guillermo Vargas Jiménez, also known as Habacuc, (born September 18, 1975, in San José, Costa Rica) is an artist best known for the controversy caused when he exhibited an emaciated dog in a gallery in Nicaragua in 2007. Guillermo Vargas studied to be a special education teacher at the Universidad Interamericana de Costa Rica, but he did not graduate. Vargas describes himself as a self-taught artist. Vargas's media include photography, paintings, performance art, installation art, theatrical dance, and video. He has exhibited In Mexico, Nicaragua and Costa Rica, as well as at the Inter-American Development Bank in the United States. Vargas was chosen as one of six representatives from Costa Rica to present at the Bienal Centroamericana Honduras in 2008 and again for the Bienal del Istmo 2010. In June, 2010, two of Vargas's videos were to be presented at the Bienal de Pontevedra in Spain; however, after Vargas showed up wearing a T-shirt that read "camisETA," his videos were removed from the program. In August, 2007, Vargas displayed his "Exposición N° 1" in the Códice Gallery in Managua, Nicaragua. The exposition included the burning of 175 pieces of crack cocaine and an ounce of marijuana while the Sandinista anthem played backwards. The work also included an emaciated dog tied to a wall by a length of rope with "Eres Lo Que Lees" ("You Are What You Read") written on the wall in dog food. According to Vargas, the work included a fifth element: the media. The work attracted controversy when it was reported that the dog had starved to death as part of Vargas's work. Photographs of the exhibit appeared on the Internet, showing the dog tied to the wall in a room full of standing people. There are no indications in the photos of where or when they were taken, nor of who took them. The outrage triggered by the photos and the allegations that the dog had been left to starve to death quickly spread internationally via blogs, e-mails, and other unconfirmed sources, including internet petitions to prevent Vargas from participating in the 2008 Bienal Centroamericana in Honduras that received over four million signatures.