art and let me explain you something
chickens are the most domesticated
animals in the world and also the most
pure bred animals in the world but this
one what you’re facing here is a hybrid
it’s a crossing between a chicken from
Belgium France and England every day we
are facing 65 billion chickens a day and
60 million tons of eggs every scientific
magazine today is telling you that a
society without chicken and eggs is very
difficult and I tell you why it’s a
protein bomb eighty percent of
developing countries are eating chickens
and if you think about the creation of
vaccines it’s all based on chicken eggs
but I take you to the history of the
chicken there is only one chicken in the
world which is the red jungle fowl that
lifts at the feet of the Himalaya and by
human interest it thought it brought his
jeans all over the world and by mutation
and manipulation humans were creating in
every country a chicken that tells
something about the country so the
chicken is not only made for consumption
but also for aesthetical reasons and
I’ll give you a good example this one
this is the pool at the breast on France
it is red in the head white in the body
and as blue legs is the French flag so
in this one yeah this one is the silky
it’s a prairie chicken and it’s made in
China so the ID was silk and I was
thinking about all these animals who
were creating in all these different
countries and actually what were we
doing we were making this chicken always
the same in every country and I was
thinking is this right can we do that
can we draw
a frame around a living animal and I was
not sure I think to make real evolutions
once in a while you have to break those
frames that’s why I starting this
project cosmopolitan chicken project as
a cross breeding protein between
chickens of different countries it’s
actually love between chickens of
different nations and I started with the
metal circa cook from Belgium to
crossbreed with the Palais de
breastaurant France and that’s on the
border between Belgium and France but
you remember i’m an artist of course so
but actually by doing this in art you
start to tell a very big thing a very
big story because with that result I
went to England with that result I went
to Germany and now arrived 20 chickens
in I have 20 countries excuse me in one
chicken and actually this is a story
about diversity and if you do this on
the level of art I mean if you do that
on the level of art you’re not talking
about the chicken but you’re really
talking about us because art is a
metaphor it’s about globalization racism
genetic engineering cloning urban
farming and actually I found myself also
in a conflict me against my chicken you
know on one hand the chicken is giving
itself to the project on the other hand
it is revolting and i become the watcher
of my own project but it generates
fantastic questions like this one where
do we come from if a chicken is coming
from one source what about humans so I
start to do expeditions to the Himalaya
and I discovered something very strong
the chicken lives on the border between
this jungle and civilization and I was
asking myself who came to who you know
this is a question about domestication
did the chicken come to us did we come
to the chicken
I mean if you think about this and
that’s why I make this kind of image you
know if you if the chicken is coming to
us and it’s like trying to find a
balance what are we doing with an animal
what are we doing with the other I mean
every little detail we are using and
where is the level of using and abusing
I think it’s very difficult so what is
your position are we poison the world or
are we fertilizing the world the
beautiful egg transparent where we live
on that’s why I started to make this
kind of installations this installation
I made in Guangzhou in China thousand
square meter of jungle people were
crossing through this installation under
the title modified spaces and they all
look to the source of life this jungle
fall 45 degrees there and if you step
out you see this installation 5 degrees
the refrigerator the eggs all stamped
and well-ordered what do we have to
protect do we have to protect nature or
the things that we are creating I think
we have to find the balance that’s why
after those two installation I make this
one it’s a human incubator and actually
it’s about Roberta ng it’s about
changing it’s about rethinking so there
is the little knee police sitting on the
border between the jungle and
civilization and I started to think
about all these things what to do with
all these thoughts and I went back to my
first drawing you know this red jungle
fold the source of life for all chickens
they give their genes and then the world
store to exist you know in all these
diversity but all of a sudden they
become more and more monopolized by us
and then there is the artist the artist
or to crossbreed and has an ID and wants
to go to something new a new definition
like you see in this picture a
transparent egg something that we done
no yet so I came to one conclusion and
one conclusion was that fertility always
comes from outside it was not about
myself it is about the other and
everything in confrontation where the
other can really grow and that’s why I
made my Open University of diversity and
actually it’s not only a beautiful
students to do where I make all my
artworks which is also a think tank a
place where scientists social
entrepreneurs philosopher biologists are
coming together to speak with each other
about big issues like fertility
diversity but also like immunity it’s
looking with them in this transparent
egg to find some knowledge that we don’t
know because the biggest knowledge is
the knowledge that we don’t know
actually this is also why the chicken
industry is helping us they taking the
snap chips you know they doing the
research and after eight years of very
big research we were finding the book of
genomes of the Cross breedings so 13
million genetic information in one
chicken and you have to know that a
normal chicken normally only has 5
million and it is this man that you see
over here Olivia not who’s an expert on
the nottingham university who told me he
said if you have a chicken with this
kind of content with 13 million DNA you
have to take action you have to do
something and I start to think and one
of the conclusions was for me so
diversity is not enough so only with
diversity you don’t make it and that’s
why I started to make my planetary
community chicken and what is the
planetary community chicken is actually
a chicken the Roosters I take from my
cosmopolitan chicken project the
diversity and I started to crossbreed is
with a local commercial chicken the one
that you find
a supermarket and actually this crossing
is on another level it’s about diversity
and productivity and the beauty is that
it’s underline the thoughts that duality
is important it’s not about one form
it’s about two forms so I start to think
about the society again so making a
cosmopolitan chicken it’s built up free
in the art world on diversity from local
chickens and it becomes global and now
it’s time to give global back to local
because local needs global needs local
and local needs global and I think that
you know this very well here in Detroit
as well you know Detroit this beautiful
Detroit was almost killed by the mono
industry just focused on cars and now
there is a reviving because everybody
started to realize that it is about
diversity and that was one of the reason
why Western man project was inviting me
to come to Detroit because they said you
know you have to bring you chicken into
Detroit because maybe we can create
something which is useful for this
beautiful city and we started an
exhibition and we built it around this
book of this 30 million genetic
information and we start to talk with
different partners from the communities
from the cities from the University to
think what we can do and it was not only
talking but was also taking action like
here in this installation every
nationality who was working on the
cosmopolitan chicken was reading their
part of their DNA their 50 pages in this
big book you know the planetary
community chickens to Queens I was
invited also in the national art gallery
in Zimbabwe where I was bringing the
chickens into this museum in the museum
we were making this installation with
women from the communities
and orphans normally this kind of people
are never visiting a museum but now they
are part of the big discussion they are
part of thinking about globalization or
crossing of sustainability and it gets a
lot of attention from other companies
like olivie they invited me to come to
Ethiopia and to work against poverty
because the planetary community chicken
and the cosmopolitan chicken has that
kind of content I created incubated
world elry is the biggest livestock
Center in the world supported by all
universities around the world and
actually what are we going to do we’re
going to create forms in the communities
to win but to empower the women there
and to give them their own little
company so that they can make eggs and
meat for the communities because your
communities is important and we will do
this on several places in the world like
here in Detroit or Zimbabwe ETO piya
Belgium and we try to find the local
commercial chicken on the market and
also to bring the cross breathing’s in
their communities in their garden
because they have to breed them itself
and like in orland urban farm here in
Detroit we will have a house a house
where we can breathe the chickens the
chickens are part of the communities
because they are carrying an ID and they
provide him with eggs and meat and
allowed me to see a much bigger
philosophical model actually if I’m
thinking about my first sketch drawing
that I made that the red jungle fowl the
source is bringing new pieces to the
world is actually the same with human
beings you know a human is an ID and it
can spread this idea all over the world
and it can become very complex and very
diverse but if we like to make evolution
we have to talk to each other and we
have to bring this complexity together
in a new point and it’s not only by
about one ID it becomes very very very
complex because there are many people
diverse people diverse IDs but believe
me if you don’t take the complexity with
you there is a point that you think you
go back but going back is not an option
the real evolution is when you take it
with you it’s about energy communication
and life and actually it’s like a normal
conversation between two people when two
IDs are clashing to each other then
there is a magic space in the middle
because I believe more in giving comment
than criticism and if you fill that
magic space with the IDS of both you
know then there is growing something
inside which is very new Deb new thing
with this mutation and you allowed it
that’s a new evolution and the
conclusion of my talk is this one I
think that every organism is looking for
an other organism to survive and I thank you so much