They Are Alive

Short Video

“Tomorrow when the farm boys find this freak of nature,

they will wrap his body in newspaper and carry him to the museum.

But tonight he is alive and in the north field with his mother.

It is a perfect summer evening: the moon rising over the orchard, the wind in the grass.

And as he stares into the sky, there are twice as many stars as usual.”

Following the lines from Laura Gilpin’s Poem “The Two-Headed Calf”, the video shows black and white footages of pets compared to those of security cameras from slaughterhouses and vivisection laboratories. We have created two separate destinies for the two, one of care and one of exploit. It’s not even a matter of species anymore as many of the cosidered “safe” ones (dogs, cats and other domestic species) are largely used as food and fur source or for experimentation as well. So where’s the difference? Why does a dog live in a house and another in a cage? Why can a cat rest in front of a fireplace while a pig shivers in a cold metal box? Whose flesh out of the two is the one we buy from supermarkets’ shelves?