In 2016, Vanmechelen launched the Planetary Community Chicken (PCC) as a natural response to the positive outcomes of the CCP, and as a way to take his art and findings on diversity out into society. The project focuses on bringing new, healthier chickens to the world’s communities, and emphasises the importance of diversity and local, small-scale community farming for long-term sustainability. 

The project starts with the idea that, every year, a rooster of the newest CCP crossbreed will be paired with a local commercial hen somewhere in the world. This chicken will absorb the genetic pool of the CCP rooster and the local commercial hen and produce a vital community chicken that can provide its host community with eggs and meat. Its name consists of CC and the date of creation. The first is called CC2016, Community Chicken 2016. 

The introduction of a new ‘cosmopolitan genome’ to the local flock puts an end to the ongoing cycle of genetic erosion that results from local inbreeding and industrial highly efficient mono-cultural production. It promises greater resilience and adaptability. In turn, the local chicken provides familiarity and the necessary characteristics suited for the local environment, as well as resistance to domestic threats. 

In each community into which the PCC is introduced, Vanmechelen makes an art exhibition the venue for the crossing and, through it, encourages public discussion about the value and meaning of diversity and identity. The beauty of ‘the other’, the coming together of the global with the local are visualised in a wide variety of works. The new crossbred chicks hatch in the galleries and museums – with exhibition materials often constructed and recycled by local communities - before being transferred to selected free-range flocks. 

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Learn more about the PCC on the MOUTH website

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