Joseph Schiano di Lombo
ph. Jonathan Llense
Joseph is a multidisciplinary artist based in Paris. He loves to take selfies with cows on his Instagram account @selfies.vaches, and he wrote a music album for dogs. He poses together with his roommates’ cat.
What I can say, first of all, about my relationship with animals is that I only realized this year that it was an invention. Animals do not exist. Jacques Derrida talks about this as well in "The Animal That I Am ". The whole (de)measure of the so-called human exception owes a lot to this little word, "animal". It alone indicates all the living beings that are not a priority to us - in other words, quite a few people - establishing a balance in language that is not observed in reality: humans would be on one side, and the rest of the living world on the other, from the woodlice to the hummingbird, from the platypus to the staphylococcus.
The humanities, from Donna J. Haraway to Vinciane Despret to eco- and cyber-feminism, the social sciences and humanities are gradually teaching me to look at the dog, the octopus, the earthworm and my own navel from a different angle. I am at the beginning of my journey, of course, but every day I set a marker on the path that detaches me from the human centre. This compelling topic alone, the gut flora, says a lot about who we really are: housed in a world, a world that itself houses a world. This angle (gently) forces humbleness and respect for all that exists.
This is probably why I am immediately embarrassed when I hear myself say or hear people say "my cat" or "my dog" today. I always wonder if "my" has the same meaning as "my friend", or if it doesn't mean "my Dyson"? Although one can love one's household appliances, too, or one's Fiat, and with a love that knows no limits... Why not. All these questions do not prevent me from having a light-hearted relationship with the subjects and the imaginations (human, too human) that animals inspire. Whether I take selfies with the cows from my beloved Savoie, write a music album for dogs or a novel in which all human beings have disappeared - leaving the stage free for herons and cockroaches - I am nowhere near laying a stone on the path that will lead us away from anthropocentrism and an overly binary world. Concerning the dog album, for example: was it really intended for dogs? The music? I doubt it. The imagination generated by the theme? Still human, too human. Perhaps it was only in my heart and with a few small handfuls of shivers that I addressed the dogs. Or rather a dog, just one, which is already a lot: a Labrador that I loved.
@joseph.schiano.di.lombo
@selfies.vaches
ph. archives personnelles
