Hartmut Kievert’s Utopia
A revolution has just taken place in this painted urban landscape. Animals that used to be called livestock roam the streets. Healthy cows graze in the concrete cracks of the ruins of meat processing plants. Convivial city dwellers share their picnic blankets with friendly sheep.
It seems to have been a non-violent revolution. We don’t see any signs of fighting. Nor do we see any cow dung or sheep poo on the lawns or pavements. There are a few cracks in the roads but that is probably due to them not being used as heavily anymore. There are less cars now. It’s a mild post-apocalypse.
The revolution must have been recent. The cows and and pigs are still clean. Spick and span. As if they were just cleaned for slaughter when the new times swept over the city.
Otherwise the existing city infrastructure must cater well to its new inhabitants. I don’t see any physical changes, no custom cow-crossings or sheep lanes. Is it business as usual... with sheep? (It reminds me of the book Zoopolis which, if I am to be crude and polemic, tries to squeeze more species into existing liberal democratic concepts without messing to much with the concepts themselves.) I would love to see Kievert elaborate on the multispecies urban living-together in his Utopia a few years into the future.
Thanks to Erika Cudworth for introducing me to Kievert’s work.