Koen Vanmechelen (°1965, Sint-Truiden) is an emerging Belgian artist producing powerful visual works. For several years, he has been working on the gigantic ‘Cosmopolitan Chicken Project'. This ‘Cosmopolitan Chicken' is a worldwide breeding project that focuses on crossbreeding various (national) chicken breeds.
The story officially began in 2000, in the village of Watou, on the border between Belgium and France; as part of the exhibition ‘Storm Centers’ (curated by Jan Hoet), Koen Vanmechelen crossed the ‘Mechelse Koekoek’, a Belgian chicken breed, with the French ‘poulet de Bresse’. Then the descendants of the crossing - named ‘Mechelse Bresse’ – were in turn crossed in a renowned gallery in London with the English ‘Redcap’ breed. This ‘Mechelen Redcap’ was exhibited at the Deweer Art Gallery in Otegem (B) in 2001, under the title ‘Between natural breeding and genetic manipulation’. The ‘Mechelse Redcap’ was then crossed with the ‘Jersey Giant’, an American breed: ‘for real’ in Limburg and ‘artificially’ (i.e. as a transparent glass chicken) at the Miami Art Fair in the US. The ‘Mechelen Giant’ in turn was crossed with the ‘Dresdner Huhn’, a pre-eminently German chicken. That concludes the current genealogical status of 'The Cosmopolitan Chicken'.
The exhibition at De Brakke Grond is conceived as a call from the hens that play (or have played) a part in the project to a Dutch Owlbeard rooster, so that he too can add his genetic material to the project. It symbolises crossbreeding as the essence of a dynamic, fruitful life.
'The Cosmopolitan Chicken' is a contemporary project that touches on numerous current social issues, including genetic manipulation, cloning, globalisation, multiracialism, multiculturalism, etc.
In the white room of De Brakke Grond, an overview of Koen Vanmechelen's work is shown: glassware, photos, sculptures... This is a predominantly documentary part of the work, linking to the catalogue entitled ‘The Cosmopolitan Chicken’, which is published in co-production with Uitgeverij Ludion and De Brakke Grond
