THE MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF CATTLE -TERIKE HAAPOJA ET LAURA GUSTAFSSON

Together with dogs and chickens, bovines are one of the main companion species of humans, joined to them in mutually constitutive relationships in which theories of evolution intersect with the development of rural economies, the food industry or techniques of genetic selection. The Museum of the History of Cattle takes the form of an ethnographic device about bovine culture and the history shared by the two species. But it also incorporates an epistemological shift that seeks to investigate the possibility of “a bovine viewpoint” with regard to domestication and industrial breeding and its impact on the definition of notions such as time, lineage or natural heritage.

The museum forms part of The History of Others, a much broader project, which explores the idea of the non-human and the categories that define the boundaries between species from the perspective of cultural history. Together with The Museum of the History of Cattle, it includes the performance The Trial, about the legal status of animals in Finnish legislation, and the art research project Museum of Nonhumanity, which presents various modalities of division between human and non-human that have been defended in the course of history.

Laura Gustafsson is a Finnish author and playwright. Her debut, a genre-bending and feminist fairytale, was nominated for the Finnish Book Foundation’s Finlandia Prize. Gustafsson’s second novel addresses the themes of language, violence and the imaginary line between man and beast. Her latest book, a story about the end of the world, was a biggest Finnish export prize nominee.
http://lauragustafsson.fi/tietoa/

Terike Haapoja is a Finnish visual artist. Her recent projects include Closed Circuit – Open Duration, which focuses on questions of mortality, co-existence and the relationship between humans and nature and The Party of Others, which appropriates the form of a political party in order to look at the status of other species and other groups excluded from the law. She represented Finland at the Venice Biennale in 2013 with a solo show in the Nordic Pavilion.
http://www.terikehaapoja.net