Execution in the name of art: German students plan to decapitate defenceless lamb live online as part of sick project

Pair could face three-year jail term under German law

200,000 people have voted on sick art project

A pair of cruel art students in Germany are defying authorities - and moral decency - by promising to forge ahead with the ritual decapitation of a lamb in the name of art.

The callous students in Berlin plan to use a home-made guillotine to behead the defenceless animal online for thousands to witness.

Their sick project, titled 'An Experiment Experiment Representing the Current Conditions Surrounding Democracy' involves a public vote as to whether the lamb is decapitated.

Sick: The students have put their project to a public vote to decide whether the defenceless lamb is killed on the internet

Artists Rouven Materne and Iman Reza have so far received over 200,000 public votes as to whether they should kill the lamb live online

So far 200,000 have taken part in the experiment, with voting thought to be fairly equal ahead of the deadline in the middle of May.

The razor-sharp blade of the guillotine alone weighs 80lbs, and the would-be killers promise that their intended victim will 'feel no pain.'

It also remains unclear at present whether their cyberspace threat is some kind of sick provocation of the local prosecutors' office and outraged citizens, or whether they seriously intend to go ahead with it.

Iman Rezai and Rouven Materne are the bizarre brains behind the project and on their website display the intended sacrificial lamb.

In the background of the video, which also appears on YouTube is the voice of Berlin University of Art lecturer Leiko Ikemura.

She can also be heard laughing on the video as the students build their pink, orange and yellow execution machine while puffing on Arabic-style water pipes.

The two German artists said they painted their guillotine in bright colours to reflect the 'colourful and deadly' nature of society

'The colours were to fend off the despondent mood we sometimes felt while building the machine,' said Rezai.

He adds; 'Yes clearly, this is a weapon. Yet there are thousands of businesses that manufacture weapons. But not such a pretty gypsy-coloured weapon! It is a reflection of our society - colourful but deadly.'

Causing the death of an animal in Germany without reasonable cause is an offence in Germany that is punishable by up to three years in jail.

Prosecutors in Berlin said they are following the case of the lamb 'with interest.'

Materne, 24, claimed the piece of performance art was a 'criticism of current morality What must be done is something that comes directly from art - from the subconscious.'