The unique Cosmopolitan Oyster Mushrooms Project

Vanmechelen launched the unique Cosmopolitan Project in the late 1990s, a large-scale international project that involves interbreeding regional chickens from different countries all over the world to create ‘Cosmopolitan chickens’. AMA got the chance to talk to him about his work and how he uses it to explore scientific, political, philosophical, and ethical issues.

Could you tell us a bit about your career?

My father was an artist and my mother was a professional designer, so they both saw that I had talent for drawings and sculptures. We had chickens in our garden when I was growing up, and so I’ve always been very interested in birds, particularly chickens, which I started to breed and crossbreed at a very young age. When I was 13, I was wondering how it was possible that people could put animals that they liked in cages