Koen Vanmechelen

Since approximately 10 years Koen Vanmechelen is mainly engaged in an ongoing worldwide project, the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project.
The project is a metaphor for the dynamism, fertility and creativity of life and a statement in favour of the peaceful living together of different species and races. It not only touches a lot of contemporary social issues such as genetic manipulation, cloning, globalisation, multiraciality and multicultural society but it also tries to influence the debate on these themes from an artistic and humanitarian point of view.
The Cosmopolitan Chicken Project officially started in 2000 in Watou, a small village near the border between Belgium and France. For his participation in the exhibition ‘Storm Centers’, curated by Jan Hoet, Koen Vanmechelen crossbred the Belgian chicken Mechelse Koekoek (Cuckoo of Malines) with the French pride Poulet de Bresse. He thus created the first Cosmopolitan Chicken and called it the Mechelse Bresse.
From there, Vanmechelen took the project all over the globe: the Mechelse Bresse was crossbred with the English Redcap, the resulting Mechelse Redcap with the Jersey Giant - an American industrial chicken - and so on.
One after another, already existing national races - each time from a different country - were crossbred with the latest Cosmopolitan Chicken.
Up to now the German Dresdner Huhn, the Dutch Owlbeard, the Mexican Louisiana, the Thai Fighter, the Brazilian Auracana, the Turkish Denizli Longcrower, the Cuban Cubalaya and the Italian Ancona were all integrated into the genealogical line of the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project. Where possible, the crossbreeding was organized in a gallery or museum in the country of origin of the newly integrated race.
Recently, the Ancona was crossed with the Mechelse Cubalaya in order to create the twelfth and last generation so far: the Mechelse Ancona.
For his solo show in September 2009 at DEWEER gallery, Koen Vanmechelen will confront the Mechelse Ancona with the Russian Orloff-chicken to create the 13th generation, the Mechelse Orloff. The Orloff project will be spread out in two events: one is the artists’ participation at the 3rd Moscow Biennale and the other one is his show at DEWEER gallery.