Focus on: Koen Vanmechelen: La Biomista - Cosmopolitan Chicken Project

Koen Vanmechelen believes that hard scientific data and artistic creativity can work together to reveal the vicissitudes of nature and of human life. La Biomista [Mixed life] is Vanmechelen’s new studio, situated in the multicultural city of Genk and home to Vanmechelen’s first Open University of Diversity and the four foundations and subprojects of his Cosmopolitan Chicken Project. He started this multidisciplinary, artistic/scientific project in late 1990. More than a mere biocultural temple, La Biomista aims to be a disseminator of active and living art and philosophical ideas. In addition to serving as an intellectual breeding ground and as the headquarters for his other Open Universities of Diversity in Detroit and Havana, La Biomista also serves as a breeding station for the artist’s chicken crossbreeds. Last but not least, La Biomista is also a laboratory and a library of biocultural diversity.

Video Documentary:

ZKM | Institute for Visual Media

Camera: Moritz Büchner, Rabea Rahmig, Louis Schmitt, Christina Zartmann
Editing: Rabea Rahmig
Voice over: Rabea Rahmig
Music: Apple Loops
Text: Regina Hock, Rabea Rahmig