'Genetic Freedom' - Scenarios about Europe
September 10-March 18
EUROPE - GENETIC FREEDOM
FIRST SCENARIO BY FILIP LUYCKX
When starting with a project on Europe, one might wonder how to define Europe exactly.
What is nowadays really European in comparison with other continents aside from our heritage? Our continent cannot put anymore an exclusive claim on the ongoing dynamic of contemporary life. Of course, any continent is defined by a number of geographical characteristics, but the limits of the continent were never clearly defined, especially when we take in account not only borderlines between states but a multitude of other aspects like population, history, economy and culture.
Most Europeans have only a vague idea of who are the other Europeans, often based on preconceived ethnical criteria, without fully realizing that the continent never has been a vacuum-closed ethnical unity and evolved already far away from such an idea. Those ethnical prejudices mirror only nostalgia to what has been a temporary constellation in recent history that has nothing to do with the deep roots of mass migrations and the origins of humankind. The identity of our (and any) continent could be rather defined by ongoing genetic exchange than by an anxious focusing on ethnical standards, which were permanently in evolution through history. Economy, science, spiritual and material culture have nothing to do with our genes.
Long processes of domestication (animals, plants) were essential to our civilisation process since the Neolithic. The chicken is till today one of the most close and valuable companions of men reflecting the headlines of human migration in their own pedigree. In this respect, the chicken might be considered as emblematic for our further evolution.
The first scenario will be fully illustrated by the Belgian conceptual artist Koen Vanmechelen and his Cosmopolitan Chicken Project, a worldwide artistic breeding project. His work revolves around two major themes: identity and bio cultural diversity. His artistic tools are the chicken and its egg. In the new installation for Leipzig the artist will present the original Red Jungle Fowl in a huge cage. It is the original or proto-‘chicken’ from which all domestic chickens are descended. More than 8 000 years ago it left the Asian jungles and became domesticated. The domestic cousins of the Red Jungle Fowl travelled the world and were substantially transformed by doing that. Meanwhile the ‘original animal’ became an endangered species.
In ‘Genetic Freedom’ the animal is caged (protected) and is living in his ‘natural surrounding’ as opposed to the cultural landscape of the park. The rest of the installation presents the results of 14 ‘crossings’ or the interbreeding of different national chicken species. They direct the gaze of the visitor to a side wall, where an egg is visibly breaking. Koen Vanmechelen: “Manipulation never is without risks. The egg hides a mysterious entity, whose essence is still hidden for us. Possibly positive, but maybe destructive. Genes never listen. Its freedom can mean rapture or capture.”
Koen Vanmechelen (Belgium, 1965) was exhibiting in numerous museums and galleries around the world, among others in Washington, Miami Beach, London, Shanghai, Amsterdam, Warsaw, Stockholm, München, Düsseldorf and Herford. He was represented at the Shanghai World Expo 2010 and the Biennals of Poznan, Dakar and Moscow. As part of the official Venice Biennial 2011, his striking project “Nato a Venezia” at the Palazzo Loredan includes a site specific installation combined with interactive research projects in collaboration with universities. This autumn his work is on display at the Biennal of Moscow and the Triennial of Guangzhou (China). Aside from exhibiting the artist is involved in many talks, conferences, artistic-scientific projects and foundations.
