Art Show's a Mess

It can probably lay claim to being the world's messiest piece of modern art.

Visitors to the Spanish artist Santiago Sierra's exhibition in the German city of Hannover are confronted with two rooms full of mud.

The project, called Haus im Schlamm, or house in the mud, involves 400 tonnes of mud, spread on the floor and walls.

Guests are invited to put on Wellington boots left nearby. Alternatively, they can trudge through it with bare feet. The exhibit, which was unveiled last night at the city's oldest art club, the Kestner Society, was inspired by a local lake, Lake Masch, the curator Hilke Wagner said.

Thousands of Germans dug the lake in the 1930s at a time of mass unemployment. Today, Germany has 5 million people on the dole, said Ms Wagner.

"You don't have to tread in it if you don't want to. But the idea is to leave footprints everywhere. It's an attack on the art establishment."