It’s About Time
Koen Vanmechelen's exhibition featuring chickens
Art Museum Gösta 19 May — 16 September 2018
Koen Vanmechelen (b. 1965), from Belgium, is a multidisciplinary artist whose output includes paintings, sculptures, photographs, videos and installations. He is best known, however, for his work over many decades with living animals such as chickens.
The Vanmechelen exhibition brings the full range of his art to Gösta Museum and its surrounding park. Vanmechelen is one of Belgium’s most famous contemporary artists. His works were last exhibited at Kassel Documenta 2012 and Venice Bienniale 2017. This is his first solo exhibition in the Nordic countries.
Key concepts in Vanmechelen’s art are diversity, identity, freedom, balance and human rights. He is a deeply ethical artist, who is concerned about the state of the Earth and humankind’s future as a species.
He seeks both symbolically and concretely to open perspectives into a future where people do not exploit nature or each other but live in a state of balance. Art plays a key role in this work. “An artist is motivated by the desire to change the world, not by the power to possess it,” he says. The exhibition is curated by Timo Valjakka.
