Animal Lovers

About

Cats are entitled to the pension, chickens have social security and cows have union representation. If all domesticated animals had civil rights they would be able to participate in policymaking and could no longer be eaten. Fellow citizens cannot be eaten. Whereas some animals in our society are cared for and pampered, others suffer in large-scale industrial livestock facilities and animal testing laboratories. For centuries, the animal rights movement has fought for less violence and more equality in the treatment of animals. The struggle is profoundly political and has marked similarities to other historic efforts for emancipation. To this day, it is humans who stand in the way of an equal relationship, who despite their better judgement cannot relinquish their exploitative interests and claims to power.

With: Ant Farm, CMUK, Katja Davar, Hana Lee Erdman, Anselmo Fox, Thomas Hawranke, Hörner/Antlfinger, Hartmut Kiewert, Ines Lechleitner, Jochen Lempert, NEOZOON, Performances for Pets (Krõõt Juurak & Alex Bailey), Lin May Saeed und Sin Kabeza Productions

The exhibition ANIMAL LOVERS proposes that we not see animals as “the other” or as a projection surface for our own desires, preferences or fears, but rather that we see them as individuals with abilities and rights. The exhibited artworks give impetus for a new understanding of the relationship between humans and animals and encourage that we regard animals as our equals. Human-animal relationships are constructed by society and therefore modifiable. The selected works deal critically with existing inequalities; they expose contradictions and clichés in the daily and medialised treatment of animals. The invited artists encounter the animals as individuals and explore the possibility of artistic collaborations. The exhibition shows architecture that allows both humans and animals to find their bearings in the habitat of the other and scenarios in which this is miraculously already the case.