Talk - Limina. Cosmopolitan Chicken Project 30 Koen Vanmechelen

For over 25 years, Koen Vanmechelen has explored biocultural diversity and identity through the Cosmopolitan Chicken Project—a process of crossbreeding chicken species that serves as a metaphor for global hybridisation and the relationship between the local and the universal. In its 30th edition, presented at Chillida Leku, the native Euskal Oiloa breed is incorporated into the project, opening a dialogue with Eduardo Chillida’s ideas on boundaries, identity, and the connection between nature and culture.

To mark this exhibition, a conversation will be held with the artist and the curatorial team — Victoria Collar, Jon Garbizu, and Gonzalo Peña where they will share processes, questions, and reflections around art, architecture, landscape, and science.

About Koen Vanmechelen

An internationally renowned artist working across a multitude of disciplines, Koen Vanmechelen (Belgium, 1965) is one of the most versatile thinkers of our time. His work lies at the intersection of art, science, philosophy, and community.

As a perpetual migrant, he travels the world in search of answers to fundamental questions that address both timeless and urgently contemporary issues: identity, diversity, globalisation, and human rights. Vanmechelen weaves these ever-evolving answers into enigmatic works and projects.

His interdisciplinary quests and initiatives invite collaboration, sparking awareness and fostering a global movement of communities. Together, they reflect on the human animal’s global legacy and explore the many ways in which we choose to live and evolve collectively.