Animal Lovers

Is it alright to eat humans? Shocked looks, vehemently shaking heads, “Are you mad?” reactions.  Of course not. But why is it alright to eat animals? Let the discussions begin. The fronts opened by this question are outside each other’s range of vision, between them a vast field of arguments for or against the equal treatment of animals and humans. What if? What if humans viewed animals as partners with equal rights? What if animals enjoyed the same right as human citizens? In New Zealand, a dog was once nominated for district mayor, in Manhattan, animals are blessed each year in October and in 2014, a man from Dresden married his cat. All relationships between humans and animals are made by society – and can therefore be changed by us humans. The exhibition ANIMAL LOVERS by the neuen Gesellschaft für bildende Kunst nGbK (the new society for fine arts) presents artistic works that put a new understanding of the relationship between animal sand humans up for discussion. Confrontation is welcome: On November 4th and 5th, the Symposium „Networking Animal Lovers“ is dealing with different human perspectives of the animal, sounding out the boundaries of zoophilia, approaches the phenomenon from sociological and judicial points of view and negotiates the role of animals in the media. So where do animals stop and humans start? Or is that the wrong question?
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Animal Lovers | until November 27th, 2016 | ngbk, Oranienstraße 25, 10999 Berlin | Free entrance | Webseite | Symposium

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Kategorien: Events | Autor: | Datum: 03. November 2016 | Tags: , , , , Keine Kommentare

The Bigger Picture

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Think of a chair! What does your chair look like? Mine is wooden, very old and has a cover of slightly scuffed red material fixed to the frame with brass nails. It has a crack in the backrest that has been passably fixed with wood glue. What does yours look like? The table that goes with it? Words are words. They leave space. Images are more precise than words. Images are stronger than words. They have the power to change things, people, ideas and truths. Photographer Nick Brandt has been documenting the animals and nature of East Africa for 15 years. No, he doesn’t document the giraffes, lions, elephants, gorillas, zebras and rhinoceroses, the majestic, beautiful creatures of this earth, he portraits them. He creates spitting images in black and white. Monuments. Because as modern humans with their industrialised lifestyle spread out across the planet, the room for those living as one with nature is diminishing. Chimneys are growing ever higher where buffalo used to graze. Forests that offered shelter and food for thousands of animals have had to make room for crop fields and wasteland. In his newest piece of work, Nick Brandt shows us this situation quite plainly. He sets the scene for his life-sized animal portraits in such formerly flourishing landscapes and points out what was and and can’t be anymore. The scenes look like a surreal world of images in which the animals once living there appear like ghosts. The book ‚Inherit The Dust‘ was published this year and can be ordered online for 40,95 Euro. Part of the proceeds go to the Big Life Foundation, founded by Nick Brandt, that wants to preserve 5 million acres of ecosystem in East Africa. We’re giving away one copy of ‚Inherit The Dust‘ to the most conscious amongst you. Send us an email with the subject ‚LIFE MATTERS‘ to hurra@muxmaeuschenwild.de.
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Nick Brandt ‚Inherit The Dust‘ | Gebundene Ausgabe: 40,95€ | Bestellbar über Amazon | nickbrandt.com