Apr 7, 2025
In the video performance The Picnic (2013), Tajči Čekada and a wild boar—both dressed in elaborate white dresses—enjoy a surreal and tender picnic together. The second video, titled Vepar, Veprica, Veprovina (2013) (roughly translating to wild boar, female wild boar, and wild boar meat), juxtaposes footage from The Picnic with disturbing scenes of hunting, butchering, and ultimately the cooking and consumption of a wild boar.
Together, these works offer a striking lesson in speciesism. In the first video, the wild boar is portrayed as a beloved companion; in the second, as a disposable source of meat. The emotional whiplash between the two is jarring, and for me, the hunting scenes were too upsetting to watch.
