As the 2023 Woordfees festival artist, in The animal – what a word! I explore the ‘question of the animal’ in the context of language. How we speak about them and how we speak to them. The animals’ lack of (human) language, and therefore (human) reason, traditionally has made them lesser. I question whether the animals’ lack of words is a fault as traditionally supposed. The lack of language is only perceived to be a deprivation from a human anthro-centred logos- dependant perspective. What if it were not?
The title is derived from Jacques Derrida’s exposition, The animal – Therefore I am. Ironically, the exhibition explores the condition of muteness between human and animal via the extensive use of the word.
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