metropolis m

In the new issue of Metropolis M, Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev talks to artists Bik Van der Pol about dOCUMENTA (13)’s artists and projects, the exhibition’s four central positions, documenta’s function as a retreat for artists and a state of hope, and… her love of dogs:

[answer Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev]‘I do think that humans are more humane when they are also more conscious of the other species with whom we share the world, and stop pretending to control everything. It is part of sharing the planet to understand that a mule is not at all stupid, but is instead one of the most free-thinking animals – that mules just don’t walk if they don’t want to, and that you have to enter in a relationship with them in order to convince them that walking is a really good idea! The question of whether crows have language, or of whether animals or plants have rights, belongs to the same debate. In order for democracy to move forward, we have to constitute the subject as a subject, and give up any pretension of ownership and exclusivity that we might have about subjectivity. It is about empowering, and the right to determine the environment in which we all live.’