Transcriber: Els De Keyser Reviewer: Ariana Bleau Lugo
Good afternoon.
This is not a chicken.
It's absolutely a piece of art.
If you look very carefully,
you see that there is a passport.
Normally, chickens are one of the most purebred animals in the world.
Also the most domesticated ones.
This one you see over here is a hybrid.
It's a crossing between Belgium, France and England.
To understand more about this project,
we have to jump into the history of the chicken.
There is only one chicken in the world
and it lives at the feet of the Himalaya.
It's the red jungle fowl.
It spread its genes by mutation and manipulation
all over the world.
By human interest we created in every country
a chicken that tells something specific about this country.
As a matter of fact, we create a mirror of ourselves.
Let me make myself a little bit more clear.
In Belgium we have the 'Mechelse Koekoek',
which was brought in in 1958 on the World Expo in Brussels.
We were very proud to show the world
this new chicken for consumption.
In France they create the 'Poulet de Bresse',
which is red in the head, white in the body and blue legs.
It's the French flag.
Actually, what we did is create a frame
around a living object.
I'm not sure that we can do this.
That's why I started my big cross-breeding project,
the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project.
I started with the Mechelse Koekoek from Belgium
to crossbreed with the Poulet de Bresse from France
and I use this as a metaphor for our lives.
Because this has nothing to do with the chicken itself.
It's [us].
Then I went to England.
I went to America with the result,
I went to Germany,
and now, 13 years later, I presented the Mechelse Silky,
the crossing with China,
on the World Expo in Shangai at this moment.
We show the world again
13 different countries generated in 1 chicken.
It all starts in Watou, here in Belgium,
on the border of Belgium and France.
I mean, it all comes from the egg.
And after so many years I can present
all these generations of chickens,
all diverse.
And what is important for me
is the ring on the leg.
Because for me the ring
shows that mankind is coming into this project.
That's why I enlarged this ring
six meter high, here on the canal,
on the Biennal of Venice, last year.
Is this science, is this biology, is this art?
For sure I think it is art,
because there are so many surprises in this project.
In the beginning, there was a black rooster born on eclipse day.
Very important for me, and I understand exactly my position.
On one side, the chicken is giving itself to the project.
On the other side, it's revolting.
And I'm in the middle of it. You know?
I'm screaming to the project
because I'm the watcher of my own project.
Back to this black rooster which was born on eclipse day.
I brought it into England, this hybrid,
to crossbreed with a typical English redcap.
You have to know that in the 60's this redcap was so popular
that it became infertile by inbreeding.
I bred this hybrid,
let it crossbreed and it generated new chicks.
I mean, the next day it was on the cover of the Times
because it is better than the European Union.
It's all about fertility.
What I am talking about? Is this natural breeding
or is this genetic engineering?
I'm sure that it is the middle.
It's between natural breeding and genetic engineering.
That's why I also present my installations
with scientific elements,
like here the transparent incubator
with the golden egg inside.
And maybe one of the most important pictures
of this whole PowerPoint presentation is this one.
You see on the surface, after so many generations,
you see the diversity.
And that's what it's all about: diversity.
And if you notice diversity on the surface,
what is happening inside of this animal?
With my scientific friends, we do the research
on dead chickens,
but also on living chickens.
We assemble all the DNA to control
and to see what's inside.
What about immunity, fertility?
Another project is about plastic surgery.
One of my roosters lost his spur.
A spur is very important for a rooster
because he has to impress females, of course,
and he has to defend himself.
With the last new technique of implants
we did an operation.
And from this operation
we gave him a golden spur.
I mean, gold is important.
Because when it is gold, the perception is
that he becomes king.
That's also why I present this sculpture in the museum,
to give him that level.
Something banal [recovers].
My collaboration with artists
starts already from 1999, when we started the Walking Egg.
It's a magazine, it's a container,
it's a think tank between art and science,
philosophy and so on.
After ten years of collaboration
it ends in a permanent installation
in a fertility clinic, with the headline:
this hybrid, the crossbreeding
between a falcon and a chicken.
The power and the strength.
I believe, if you bring elements together,
new things can be born.
Like here, on the cover of Nature.
They present a chicken because they think
that for the next 50 or 100 years
it's the most important animal in science.
I believe that the world has to be open,
transparent, and that we have to bring
all elements together,
like countries, professions, and so on.
If we do that, a new generation can start.
That reminds me of one of my works,
which I think is very important.
It's a Salvator Globe.
Normally that one is on top of the church.
The ball stands for the world,
the cross is religion,
and on top of it there is a rooster,
shouting above everything.
I mean, I think it's too much power for this one.
He comes back, in my Salvator Globe, into the world.
By crossing and communication, it creates new chances.
I think it is a border animal.
It's transforming continuously,
just like the red jungle fowl,
who lives on the border between the jungle and civilisation.
It's changing.
Who comes to whom?
Did the chicken come to us or did we come to the chicken?
I mean, what does it give us?
Think about food.
Think about that.
If the chicken does well, we do well.
If the chicken does not do well, we don't do well.
Me, in confrontation with my installation.
Construction, destruction.
Eating the chicken.
A chicken can only fly 15 meters high
and 100 meters far.
It's maybe the limit that is good,
because it can come back to the earth
and tell what is between heaven and earth,
better than the eagle
who burns his wings to the sun
and falls down to the floor.
In that I see a completely new configaration
for my Salvator Globe.
This time it's turned and you see
the women's science coming.
And is this new configuration,
is this construction
or is this destruction?
I believe in this one: duality.
Bringing two parts together,
the chicken and the egg.
I believe in symbiosis.
I believe, if things are coming together,
that is looking on the back side of the moon.
There we can find new chances,
things that were in the past
and things that wil be in the future.
Because, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I really think that every organism
is looking for another organism to survive.
And the same applies to man and chicken.
I thank you.
(Applause)