ABOUT THE ART OF BURYING OUR HEADS

ERIK NUSSBICKER, LIONEL SABATTÉ, HANS LEMMEN, ERIC GUGLIELMI, SZAJNER

EDWART VIGNOT

Who would dare declare, “I am an animal, you are an animal, he is (..)”?

Humans have always tried to avoid that sort of comparison, and have refused any form of relation to animals. We proudly fly the colors of our exceptional state of being: language, bipedal posture, opposable thumbs distinct from our other fingers, imparting collective memory, plus more, such as our disposition to creating art and leaving our mark on history. Yet, animals are never remote, as they can be found on our plates, on our shoulders, and on the edges of our beds. They also undergo mutation in laboratories for our health, and grow extinct or proliferate to devour us. In the end, might it be in death that mankind and animals are realigned, when they are reduced to skulls and simple piles of bones? Could the universal, homogenous nature of the living world find its bond in that very pile of dust? Or, on the contrary, would it be the life of humans and our excesses that provoke death which distinguish us from animals? Humans do have an insatiable need for power, plus faults, vices, desire for entertainment, and care for education.

‘About the art of burying our heads’ (De l’art de se voiler la face) summons 6 contemporary artists who have chosen to cross human and animal viewpoints in their outlook on reality. It goes from examining our origins to setting an end to modern excesses.