Installations
From the 8th of September to the 24th of November, Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana presented a comprehensive programme featuring installations, archives and performances by the participants of the edition.
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The Liberation of Animals from their Cages XI
- TypeInstallation
- ParticipantLin May Saeed
- VenueCasa Gomis
The Liberation of Animals from their Cages XI, 2012 © Lin May Saeed. Photo © Manifesta 15 Barcelona Metropolitana / Ivan Erofeev
While the ancient Egyptians did not have a term for “animal”, considering them equal to man, the evolution of this concept, particularly in Western philosophy and religions, has mutated into an antonym of “human”. An anthropocentric, dualistic vision of the world produced mechanisms for the control and exclusion of animals; it follows that their depiction as non-rational beings devoid of subjectivity and individuality has made possible their often violent subjugation to human interests. The consequences are enormous, as evidenced by the fact that meat and dairy farming account for more CO2 emissions than cars, planes, trains and buses combined. The late German-Iraqi artist Lin May Saeed’s body of work, which is indicative of her lifelong involvement in the animal rights movement, radically reformulates human-animal relations. Assuming the form of fables, her work proposes ordinary, but profoundly transformative acts of care, evoking how – as the writer, activist and historian Rebecca Solnit argues – the imagination is the first site of every revolution. And that is exactly what Saeed proposed: a revolution in how we relate to animals – a revolution defined by empathy and a dedication to co-habitation.
2012
Steel, lacquer
210 × 169 × 6 cm
Courtesy of The Estate of Lin May Saeed and Jacky Strenz, Frankfurt am Main
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