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Koen van Mechelen

Koen van Mechelen (1965) is a Belgian conceptual artist, who has been using techniques like painting, drawing, photography, installations, wood carving, is internationally renowned for his Cosmopolitan Chicken Project, a worldwide breeding project in which he tries to create the ultimate hybrid with genes from all over the world, the cosmopolitan chicken. He started this project in 2000, with a hybrid between a Belgian "Mechelse koekoek" chicken and a French "Poulet de Bresse". One of the statements he likes to make with his art is the subjectivity of boundaries.
His work, an ode to life, revolves around two major themes: biocultural diversity and identity. His artistic tool is Gallus gallus, the chicken, and its egg.
Another project is called "The Walking Egg", a project on fertility, in which he cooperates with the Worls Health Organisation WHO.
Apart from his projects, Coen van Mechelen has created an Open Unibversity for Diversity in Hasselt (B), a thinktank and a meeting place for the ideas around his projects.
For his projects, he collaborates with both alpha and beta scientists from all over the world. In Spring, 2010, he was awarded with a honorary doctorate from the University of Hasselt (B). Always on the move, he is forever looking for wormholes between his work and the world.

Koen van Mechelen was one of the participants of the so-called couch session on the 31th of July, in Antwerp, and presented a short summary of his work as food for thought about diversity.