jaemee studio

BETHANY

Project Status: Built

Year : 2022

Type : Performance based installation

Will humanity accept all creatures’ right to exist?

Located at the Bethany Arts Community in Ossining, NY, ‘Bethany’ project resurrects the extinct Pyrenean ibex as a large participatory public art installation. Commemorating the now extinct animal, the collaborative art piece is a sculpture made of balloons that is constructed and disassembled by the visitors. 

Subspecies of the Iberian Ibex, Pyrenean Ibex is an animal that went extinct twice.  The first extinction occurred in the early 2000s, trophy hunting caused a sharp decline in populations. Although its killing became prohibited in 1913, extinction could not be prevented and it was eventually formalized on January 6, 2000. The controversial cloning program was launched immediately without scientific consent, nor support from NGOs. Three years later, one clone was born alive but died several minutes later.

The installation consists of two parts: first, the process of reanimating the Pyrenean ibex by filling the structure with balloons where the participants are asked to contribute a balloon with their own written message to shape the animal; second the process of taking the balloons down by popping them one by one.

The balloons become the ‘flesh’ of the ibex, while the participant becomes the ‘hunter’ by popping the balloons and dissembling the ‘bones’. Once the cycle of creating the extinct ibex and disassembling it is complete, the stage is left without a trace, as a nod to the animal’s extinction.