Today marks the launch of the week-long “INTERSPECIES – artists collaborating with animals” show and symposium in London. We really wish we could be there…maybe the show will travel. Let us know if you’re planning to go. We’d love to have and “in the field correspondent” on this one. Thus far, we haven’t seen anything this public resonate this much with Animal Architecture.
Interspecies asks: Can artists work with animals as equals? If not, what is the current state of the human-animal relationship? It has recently been shown that humans are closer to the higher primates than previously thought, with chimpanzee and gorilla behaviour reflecting politics, deception and even possibly creativity. What does this mean to the way we see ourselves as one species inhabiting a planet in crisis? Interspecies uses artistic and participatory strategies to stimulate dialogue and debate, showing artists in contact with real animals and negotiating a new power relationship, questioning the way we view our interactions with animals during Darwin’s anniversary year.
The line up of cross-species-collaborating artists is quite impressive (Nicolas Primat, Kira O’Reilly, and Beatriz de Costa to name a few) and we will be covering each artist’s work in more depth as the week progresses. But for now check out the website for the basics on how to better live with our companion species, oh and some provocative species-bending art.
