Crystal Soul
In his Cosmopolitan Project the Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen crossbreeds all kinds of chicken. A radical attempt to answer one of the most basic questions: what is our identity as an individual and as a species. But also: what is the nature of our cage?
Vanmechelen: ÒThe chicken climbs up as a pyramid-animal. At first it seems a consumer animal, because it lets itself be used. At the same time, a pool of genes is developing itself. An immense power that comes from within and becomes stronger and stronger. The result is an inside-outside effect. Therefore I call my eventual chicken an eagle, the outstanding bird that sits on top of the pyramid. A predator that feeds itself with the rest of the pyramid. But unlike the eagle, the chicken has not got the power, it grows into it. It is transparent.Ó
Koen Vanmechelen started with the The Cosmopolitan Project because he was born with it. Van Mechelen: ÒThe chicken and the egg have always been prominent in my life. As a child it was a metaphor for my life as an artist it is a metaphor for life in general. Every time I hope to cross the right border to let society and myself be fertilized in a constructive way. Fascinating: the so called banal animal as a saviour for life-threatening diseases, but also the bringer of hope which exposes new and evolutionary insights, brings forth philosophical issues and generates discussions and de-bate. The egg is the perfect tool/metaphor; the chicken bears the two elements in itself: the egg as symbol for the world, and the creature itself asparadise in which the world originates and grows. I want to go my own way, influenced by as few symbols as possible, with no burdens of the past. In this way I can look for and find new meanings. Art and morality go together. You always have to be very sincere with your work. It is your child while at the same time not being your child at all. You have to give it its freedom. At the same time it forces you to go into confrontation with the world and to take my stand in between.Ó
Between heaven and earth indeed: ÒI think that there is a dimension which we cannot experience, the so-called fourth dimension. Making visible the intrusions of this dimension in the known dimen-sions is my task. To show that nothing happens as a matter of fact, there is a reason for every-thing.Ó
Vanmechelen uses living material to break the boundaries of time. These materials are always in the future. They move of theirs own, independent of the artist. ÒI like the unpredictability of the material, which symbolizes life itself. The glassblower has to keep glass moving, so that it does not fall. It needs movement. Glass is a material that cannot be replaced, unlike most other materials. It is a means to peer through walls; it has mysterious qualities. Therefore it has an enormous power and importance. In Waterford the crossbreeding continues, but this time through glass, with Murano. A genetic mix of different glassblowers who create unexpected works, a mix of different cultures, the onset of a new cross-breeding project.Ó |
