Koen Vanmechelen

CHICKEN + DWARF

Venice, Italy

We are honored to have fabricated “Dwarf with Chicken,” an intimate bronze sculpture by renowned Belgian artist Koen Vanmechelen. This deeply moving work stands as a meditation on interspecies relationships and the vulnerability of coexistence.

Measuring approximately 46.5 x 41.3 x 96.2 cm, this small-scale bronze captures a dwarf figure cradling a chicken—a gesture both protective and questioning. The composition challenges conventional hierarchies of size, power, and significance. In Vanmechelen’s hands, both figure and fowl achieve equal presence and dignity, dissolving the boundaries we typically impose between the human and animal worlds.

The work draws on classical sculpture traditions while subverting them through a contemporary lens. Here, the chicken becomes neither symbol nor specimen, but a sentient being worthy of tender care.

Currently on exhibition at Palazzo Rota Ivancich in Venice as part of “We Thought We Were Alone”—Vanmechelen’s first solo sculpture show during the 61st Venice Biennale (May 9 – November 22, 2026)—the work invites viewers to reconsider humanity’s position within a broader ecological and cultural continuum.