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The Cosmopolitan Chicken Project is a global, transdisciplinary and transtemporal examination of the themes of biocultural diversity and identity through the interplay of art, science and beauty. In the CCP Koen Vanmechelen cross-breeds chicken breeds from different countries. His ultimate goal is the creation of a Cosmopolitan Chicken carrying the genes of all the planet's chicken breeds. Much more than a mere domesticated animal, the chicken is art in itself.
It serves as a metaphor for the human animal and its relationship with the biological and cultural diversity of the planet.
While the native breeds that descended from the original chicken are evolutionary dead-ends , Vanmechelen's hybrids are solutions. Many years of crossbreeding have proven that each successive generation of hybrids is ‘better’. It is more resilient, it lives longer, is less susceptible to diseases, and it exhibits less aggressive behavior. Genetic diversity is essential, proves the Cosmopolitan Chicken Research Programme , which studies the various CCP hybrids.
Central to Koen Vanmechelen's oeuvre is the chicken. More specifically: the interbreeding of domesticated chickens from different countries and the expected creation of a cosmopolitan hybrid. Vanmechelen uses the animal, which has been co-evolving with the human animal for more than 7.000 years, as a metaphor for the global cultural and genetic mix that diversity and hybridisation create. His work also questions the position of the human animal on the planet.