In-Vetro-C.C.P. (2011)
MIXED TECHNIQUE
The installation In-Vetro-C.C.P. is part of the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project and refers to an exhibition of the same name at Mediaruimte (Brussels) in 2011. The prints show two breeds of chickens: a crossbreed by the artist and a Bankiva chicken or red junglefowl, the chicken’s primal ancestor. Between the two species is a domestication process of 8,000 years during which man has tried to bend things to his will. On the floor is a glass egg surrounded by silver chicken legs. The Italian title literally means ‘in glass’ and evokes associations with several themes from Vanmechelen’s oeuvre, for which the egg is also a symbol: of fragility and transparency, but equally fertility, manipulation and the tension between present and future. The cycle of generations has created today’s diversity. It ensures and protects this new balance contained in the egg, while at the same time refining and narrowing that balance.