Ter-Oganian's first art works were parodies of Duchamp, for example he exhibited a men's urinal, where the visitors where actually invited to piss inside. In autumn 1994, he climbed the US Embassy and hanged a parody of Jasper John's USA Flag painting instead of the real flag. He didn't like the market of art and tried to make things that wouldn't sell.
And he was against taboos. One day there was a big contemporary art fair in Manezh gallery in Moscow. All the galleries had stands where they were showing their favorite artists and selling their stuff. He installed a stand also, were he also had a lot of images: cheap Russian reproductions of Orthodox icons that are sold in the streets for a few Rubbles. He stood at his stand and proposed people to buy an icon and to break it, or to buy an icon and to have it broken by the artist.There was a lot of polemic about this action and Ter-Oganian was sued, now he left Russia. You can read some articles about him on Tv Gallery website.
