Titled ''Fountain'' by Marcel Duchamp was the most controversial urinal in the history of art, and the ''masterpiece'' that would mark a before and after in regard to conceptual art.

Marcel Duchamp was the anarchy in the art of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, it can be said that he was the creator of the so-called ready-made which in turn marks the history of conceptual art because he was the first to protest against of art institutions.

Duchamp was part of the most influential historical avant-gardes or better called "isms" that took part throughout the first third of the 20th century, until the beginning of the Second World War. The isms were known mainly to generate the rupture in the world of art, rupture of the academy, the classic and went against the institutions.

The artwork of Duchamp can be found within the different isms in a fact of experimentation, in his work we can perceive several influences: Fauvist in his first paintings, which later under the influence of Picasso would have Cubist tendencies, he also experimented with photography and futuristic and surrealist style, until he steps on the land of dadaism where the ready-made is born and a new conception of what art is will come.

It is important to know that Duchamp did not study in a prestigious art school like other well-known artists of the time, on the contrary, he grew up learning in coffee shops in his neighborhood. Duchamp showed that sometimes the academy is not necessary because the pure will is that which turned his artwork into something transcendental.

From his controversial urinal and other works with the use of elements already manufactured a new characteristic is born that must be taken into account, the critical symbolic character, not as the symbolist painting, but the symbolism that would question the elites of art, that that would cause rupture and cause the artist to take control of the power of his own artwork.

At the beginning of the year 1917 some artists founded the Society of Independent Artists with the main objective of organizing exhibitions without a jury or prizes. Anyone could participate as long as they paid their registration. This group would propose to expose annually all the artworks that arrived to them. Duchamp was appointed one of those responsible for the selection of works that would be exhibited.

This is where a little prank revolutionizes everything. Duchamp decided to participate but anonymously, he bought a white porcelain urinal that he titled "Fuente", signed it under the name of R. Mutt and sent it to the Society of Independent Artists to be included in the exhibition.
Quickly the urinal was rejected and considered an insult or a joke in bad taste. Duchamp was probably enduring laughter at the reaction of people without realizing that he created the first conceptual work.

From here, it was born that "anything that is in a museum is art."

Duchamp affirmed "I threw them a urinal at the head as a provocation and now it is that they admire its aesthetic beauty..." This was a direct insult to the artistic community, and on the contrary, it ended up becoming a very important artwork.

In 2004, Marcel Duchamp's fountain was recognized as the most influential artwork of the 20th century.

In my opinion, at the present time a ready-made would not work because this artistic concept owed its controversy and success to the period in which it developed, and although it seems to be a very weak type of art, it is not, since it did not matter here really the element, if not the speech that was merely critical and political. It was not created for contemplation of something aesthetically beautiful if not to reflect and cause noise in the art world. That was the main objective of Dadaism.

It is difficult to define that small line between what is art and what is not, even in these times we are debating the same. But if you ask me, every work should contain technique and concept, there should not be one without the other.

Finally, I will show you a reinterpretation of Duchamp's artwork that I got in the bathrooms of my university. If you ask me, after seeing this, the idea to write this publication about Duchamp was born.

Reinterpretation of Fountain, 2010.