Reading, to Kins is a performance for the dead. Painful swelling, inflammation and kidney failure. Millions of vultures in India have died this way, unintentionally poisoned with Diclofenac, a painkiller used by farmers to keep cattle working harder and longer, and to increase milk production.
Compared to the 1980s, India’s vulture population has decreased by 95%, leaving an ecological void impossible to fill.
Reading, to Kins was performed within the Indian vulture collection at The Alexander Koenig Zoological Research Museum in Bonn (DE). With the intention of including the vultures in the conversation about their demise and the ongoings on their land, Jonas from Hillside Projects read the article We Are Witnessing a Crime Against Humanity by Arundhati Roy to a committee of taxidermied vultures. Roy’s text speaks of the political situation and the Covid pandemic in India during the spring of 2021. The text was read from beginning to end with no pause.
Credits:
Translation of Arundhati Roy’s text from English to Swedish: Anna Tebelius
Videographer: Robin Deutschbein
Edit: Hillside Projects
Sound: Jonas Holmer