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Self-taught artist Koen Vanmechelen is an internationally renowned conceptual artist who focuses on biocultural diversity and identity in multimedia works. In the late 1990s, he gained notoriety with his Cosmopolitan Chicken Project. By crossing indigenous chickens with breeds from around the world, Vanmechelen aims to create a cosmopolitan specimen, a metaphor for genetic and cultural diversity in a globalised society. His work – at the crossroads of art, science and ethics – raises questions with regard to authenticity and diversity, evolution and manipulation. Vanmechelen uses innovative techniques and is often involved in interdisciplinary scientific collaborations. Some of his socially engaged projects, for instance on the universal rights of the child or fertility in developing countries, are embedded in foundations. Together, they form the Open University of Diversity, a creative laboratory at LABIOMISTA, the artist’s central studio, meeting and exhibition space in MeeuwenGruitrode. With Seduzione, Vanmechelen was the first Belgian to have an exhibition at the Uffizi in Florence in 2022.