After a white door appeared Koen Vanmechelen`s studio. Inside? A spacious ship with enormous canvas in vivid colours, a pair of chicken skeletons fighting, stuffed chickens, alive chickens running inside two big cages... He pointed at a sculpture made with chickens´s bodies:“this is the Cosmopolitan Chicken, what we aim to do in our project. But chicken is just a methaphore of human being existence and the egg a metaphore of the world”.
Koen Vanmechelen is more than a conceptual artist or a Belgian philosopher: he is an authentic “chicken lover”. In the “Cosmopolitan Chicken Proyect” (CCP) he crossbreeds chicken in order to obtein the “universal chicken or superbastard”. Last year he exposed at the Biennals of Venice and Moscow, as well as in Washington, at Conner Contemporary Art. Next stops: an exposition in Leuven (30 January- 25 April), the Biennials of Poland and Dakar and World Expo Shangai.
Why the chicken and not the pig or the dog?
It´s the most domesticated animal in all societies, it´s eaten everywhere, 90% of medicaments are done with chicken... It´s very clear that this animal is the most related to human beings.
The Cosmopolitan Chicken Project (CCP), his poultry-inspired show is a symbiosis between art, science, politics and ethics that touches many contemporary social issues such as cloning, genetic manipulation, globalisation and multicultural society. The thirteen chickens this conceptual artist is crossing, also encompass thirteen countries, cultures and ways of thinking. And he does exacly the same: showcasing diversity is his biggest challenge so. This must be his year: 2010 it´s the International Year of Biodiversity.
Did we come to the chicken or it came to the human being?
We never know... there is a balance and a symbiosis between both. Every organism is looking for another organism to survive, the same applies to man and chicken. We have domesticated them for ages, so there is a lot of our thoughts in them. To domesticate is to enslave, and that entails manipulation. It´s just a metaphore, for humans it is the same: the most powerful one is the one who is using his threads, that one who punishes the others...
Koen´s answer sounds categorical, he has very clear ideas. His office also transmits that order. It is in Hasselt, at the second floor of the studio of the architect Alfredo di Gregorio, his patron of the arts. Koen has “nothing to do with this architect, who does horrible works and just let him be there”. After a spiral staircase, a floor suports some desks and easels with sketches, maps and set squares for the draughtsmen and designers. At the back there is Koen´s desk, shared with his assistant Stuffel. It feels hot in that office, specially after being in the freezing art studio of Koen. It´s just besides the stairs and it´s only for him and his art.
What is "freedom"? Does it exit?
Freedom is breaking the frame of thinking or of being. It´s to be ready to create your world without bothering the others... (thoughtful wispher): it´s a very difficult thing because it´s not on your boundaries...If you look into yourself you can free your energy. Also when the interest comes to the other: when you find the duality you can reach another life. I try to understand the duality between the chicken and the human being without being nuts (laughs).
At his 44, Vanmechelen has medium lenth dishevelled hair with a few grey hairs. He combs it with the hand continously, specialy when he is nervous or thinking. But he was so relaxed while we were talking downstairs at the cosy wooden bar of the building. There everyone can help oneself and then have a break in one of the tables: there is soft music, faint light, a target on the wall and a big table with arquitectural and art magazines.
And what is the meaning of life? Why are we here?
We are here because we are incomplete, we miss something, and we have to learn how to find that part and with duality you will find balance. Once you find it, you find joy. If you continue with duality, you will find there is another paralele world... We are just starting to discover many things...!
Koen smiles half-closing his eyes. For a long time he was a patissier specialized in chocolate. Then art came to him when he was in the kitchen and 14 years ago he “broke the cage”and converted his hobby in a full-time job. He had just discovered that art was one of his “dualities”.
Do you think there can be a world without frontiers?
They always protect yourself, they are neccesary. But I hope in a uthopic world it could be possible. The transparent globe of which my “egg” is made, let me to see without boundaries. Boundaries are frames.
This free-spirited visionary has this “universal way of thinking”. He has been in Copenhagen Climate Conference with The Uchroniars, a sinergetic community of creative thinkers worried about ecology. Despite the fail of the Danish meeting, Vanmechelen still thinks that it`s possible to change things inside the current system.
How did you hear about the catastrophe in Haití?
I´ve heard about it on the radio only, cause I don´t read and I don´t watch the TV. But half a year ago I already started to help. I sat up a long- term helping programme: we planted trees over there so people can eat the fruit. When something happends I´m on the spot.
Koen has studied Latin and Greek but recognises that has never read a book and rarelely a magazine or a newspaper... He is proud at saying that all his knowledge comes “from energy and from what he listens to the environment”. “For example in 2009 I have done 56 lectures all over the world. They always think I must be reading all the time, and that´s not true”- says with a sparkling look.
How to make people react against climate change? Copenhagen 2009 seems not to be enough...We have already said something wrong: “we have to save the planet”. It´s like saying that we are the most powerful, and this is wrong, cause the most powerful is nature and we are just a part of it. It´s better to say “save yourself”. If we created a social alarm about this, then people would react. Climate change is a mental change, we have to balance between humans and the other pieces of nature. And there is no regretion, every change comes and we can only find solutions with a very sophisticated technology.
Koen has a bushy dark moustache and goatee. He looks into the eyes, which reinforce his power of conviction. He is a self-confident communicator but not really positive about our uncertain future.
How do you see the future of humans?
We will survive, but not all. Biomass is always the same: if 7 kilos come in here, they will come out of another place. If the biomass is out of balance, for example too much people and less nature, I am afraid that a lot of things will die, also humans.
This visionary never smiles to the camera, he turns serious just when the flash is on. It´s like an instintive reflex. I took one picture of him with a thoughtfull look and showed to him. He liked it and said: “this is me, I am all the time thinking, I have in my head many ideas and proyects at the same time”.
So what would be the solution? Restrictions on the number of children?
Nature will regulate by itself. We can only balance ourselves. For example, ice bears are dying, maybe that´s part of evolution. We also might die if it´s part of evolution. The energy flew between us. During the interview I felt that we were at the same wavelength. We strongly shaked hands before I descended the spiral staircase and got back to Earth. Panta rei.
Why the chicken and not the pig or the dog?
It´s the most domesticated animal in all societies, it´s eaten everywhere, 90% of medicaments are done with chicken... It´s very clear that this animal is the most related to human beings.
The Cosmopolitan Chicken Project (CCP), his poultry-inspired show is a symbiosis between art, science, politics and ethics that touches many contemporary social issues such as cloning, genetic manipulation, globalisation and multicultural society. The thirteen chickens this conceptual artist is crossing, also encompass thirteen countries, cultures and ways of thinking. And he does exacly the same: showcasing diversity is his biggest challenge so. This must be his year: 2010 it´s the International Year of Biodiversity.
Did we come to the chicken or it came to the human being?
We never know... there is a balance and a symbiosis between both. Every organism is looking for another organism to survive, the same applies to man and chicken. We have domesticated them for ages, so there is a lot of our thoughts in them. To domesticate is to enslave, and that entails manipulation. It´s just a metaphore, for humans it is the same: the most powerful one is the one who is using his threads, that one who punishes the others...
Koen´s answer sounds categorical, he has very clear ideas. His office also transmits that order. It is in Hasselt, at the second floor of the studio of the architect Alfredo di Gregorio, his patron of the arts. Koen has “nothing to do with this architect, who does horrible works and just let him be there”. After a spiral staircase, a floor suports some desks and easels with sketches, maps and set squares for the draughtsmen and designers. At the back there is Koen´s desk, shared with his assistant Stuffel. It feels hot in that office, specially after being in the freezing art studio of Koen. It´s just besides the stairs and it´s only for him and his art.
What is "freedom"? Does it exit?
Freedom is breaking the frame of thinking or of being. It´s to be ready to create your world without bothering the others... (thoughtful wispher): it´s a very difficult thing because it´s not on your boundaries...If you look into yourself you can free your energy. Also when the interest comes to the other: when you find the duality you can reach another life. I try to understand the duality between the chicken and the human being without being nuts (laughs).
At his 44, Vanmechelen has medium lenth dishevelled hair with a few grey hairs. He combs it with the hand continously, specialy when he is nervous or thinking. But he was so relaxed while we were talking downstairs at the cosy wooden bar of the building. There everyone can help oneself and then have a break in one of the tables: there is soft music, faint light, a target on the wall and a big table with arquitectural and art magazines.
And what is the meaning of life? Why are we here?
We are here because we are incomplete, we miss something, and we have to learn how to find that part and with duality you will find balance. Once you find it, you find joy. If you continue with duality, you will find there is another paralele world... We are just starting to discover many things...!
Koen smiles half-closing his eyes. For a long time he was a patissier specialized in chocolate. Then art came to him when he was in the kitchen and 14 years ago he “broke the cage”and converted his hobby in a full-time job. He had just discovered that art was one of his “dualities”.
Do you think there can be a world without frontiers?
They always protect yourself, they are neccesary. But I hope in a uthopic world it could be possible. The transparent globe of which my “egg” is made, let me to see without boundaries. Boundaries are frames.
This free-spirited visionary has this “universal way of thinking”. He has been in Copenhagen Climate Conference with The Uchroniars, a sinergetic community of creative thinkers worried about ecology. Despite the fail of the Danish meeting, Vanmechelen still thinks that it`s possible to change things inside the current system.
How did you hear about the catastrophe in Haití?
I´ve heard about it on the radio only, cause I don´t read and I don´t watch the TV. But half a year ago I already started to help. I sat up a long- term helping programme: we planted trees over there so people can eat the fruit. When something happends I´m on the spot.
Koen has studied Latin and Greek but recognises that has never read a book and rarelely a magazine or a newspaper... He is proud at saying that all his knowledge comes “from energy and from what he listens to the environment”. “For example in 2009 I have done 56 lectures all over the world. They always think I must be reading all the time, and that´s not true”- says with a sparkling look.
How to make people react against climate change? Copenhagen 2009 seems not to be enough...We have already said something wrong: “we have to save the planet”. It´s like saying that we are the most powerful, and this is wrong, cause the most powerful is nature and we are just a part of it. It´s better to say “save yourself”. If we created a social alarm about this, then people would react. Climate change is a mental change, we have to balance between humans and the other pieces of nature. And there is no regretion, every change comes and we can only find solutions with a very sophisticated technology.
Koen has a bushy dark moustache and goatee. He looks into the eyes, which reinforce his power of conviction. He is a self-confident communicator but not really positive about our uncertain future.
How do you see the future of humans?
We will survive, but not all. Biomass is always the same: if 7 kilos come in here, they will come out of another place. If the biomass is out of balance, for example too much people and less nature, I am afraid that a lot of things will die, also humans.
This visionary never smiles to the camera, he turns serious just when the flash is on. It´s like an instintive reflex. I took one picture of him with a thoughtfull look and showed to him. He liked it and said: “this is me, I am all the time thinking, I have in my head many ideas and proyects at the same time”.
So what would be the solution? Restrictions on the number of children?
Nature will regulate by itself. We can only balance ourselves. For example, ice bears are dying, maybe that´s part of evolution. We also might die if it´s part of evolution. The energy flew between us. During the interview I felt that we were at the same wavelength. We strongly shaked hands before I descended the spiral staircase and got back to Earth. Panta rei.
Comentarios
Publicar un comentario