“In our culture, the decisive political conflict, which governs every other conflict, is that between the animality and the humanity of man”

-Giorgio Agamben. The Open

 

Preceded by a palpable sense of ecological and moral urgency, the social, economical and cultural catastrophe that growingly looms over humanity has made it clear that in every species’ best interest, including homo sapiens', a paradigm shift is key.

 

In dealing with this dilemma, the question re-emerges with more relevance than ever before: What does it mean to be animal and where are the (physical, philosophical, political and ethical) borders of humanity? Empowered and driven by ideological currents whose ultimate motive has been the separation of human and in-human, contemporary man has in his plate, clothes and an endless stream of material and technological applications, a mirror that reflects the best and the worst of his own condition.

 

How can we reformulate a relationship long based on objectification, vertical categorization, and where a virulent and deeply ingrained animal industrial complex permeates all aspects of human civilization?

Anathema (part 1 of ANIMAL) examines and questions our inter-species relationships focusing on the power, control, domination and violence that are exercised on all that is not recognized as human, and that nevertheless seem to suggest a reflection of intra-human biopolitics designed by the dispositive called homo sapiens.