Monument for the 308
September 9, 2019 — January 26, 2020
Monument for the 308 was a 24-foot-tall anatomic sculpture of a Ross 308 boiler chicken composed of 3D-printed bones staged within the grand hall of the Denver Public Library’s central branch. Monument for the 308 stood as a symbol of the Anthropocene, a newly proposed geologic era marked by humans’ permanent impression on the earth.
This work was a part of MONUMENTAL, a wider project curated by Black Cube in partnership with The Denver Theatre District. Special thanks to the Denver Public Library (Central Branch) for hosting this sculpture.
Monument for the 308
Andreas Greiner
Monument for the 308 is a 24-foot-tall sculpture by German artist Andreas Greiner that resembles a dinosaur skeleton in a natural history museum. However, the animal depicted is a common Ross 308 broiler chicken and is not extinct like its prehistoric ancestor, the Archaeopteryx. Today, these chickens are bred in staggering numbers with an anatomy manipulated to serve human meat consumption. Monument for the 308 pays tribute to an animal species of our time and acknowledges the reciprocal dependency between broiler chickens and humans.
About MONUMENTAL
Andreas Greiner’s Monument for the 308 is a part of MONUMENTAL, a series of public, contemporary artworks and community engagement programs that explore, question, and transform the role monuments play within society. This project is coproduced by Black Cube (a nomadic contemporary art museum) and The Denver Theatre District, with artworks curated by Black Cube.
Additional thanks to the architect, Diogo Vale, and fabricators Dmitri Obergfell and Caleb Hanhe, as well as the art installers, Demiurge, for reconstructing this sculpture on site. MONUMENTAL is funded in part by the Bonfils-Stanton Foundation and the David and Laura Merage Foundation.
