“KIP”: When an Artist Performs for Chickens
Dutch artist Anne Hofstra’s work KIP (Dutch for “chicken”) is a theatrical performance created exclusively for chickens. This seemingly absurd piece of performance art drew wide attention and controversy at the 2023 Amsterdam Fringe Festival. Hofstra not only choreographed a play for chickens but also lived with them for six weeks, attempting to understand their interests, rhythms, and emotions.
However, during this period of cohabitation, she experienced intense emotional fluctuations. In an interview, she recalled that the only time she truly felt despair was when she realized she couldn’t “read” the chickens’ emotions. The chickens neither responded nor resisted; their silence made her feel lonely and frustrated—she even broke down in tears.
But in that very moment, the chickens gathered around her. She suddenly felt that perhaps a kind of connection beyond language was taking place.
A Theatre for Non-Human Audiences
The original intention behind KIP was to challenge the deeply rooted anthropocentrism in art. Hofstra asked: “Why should art exist only for humans? Why are humans the only beings considered ‘audiences’?”
By making chickens the primary audience and placing human performers on the periphery, she sought to subvert the traditional structure of theatre—to bring non-human beings into the very center of artistic experience.
In the early stages of creation, Hofstra studied animal cognition and behavior, consulted with scientists and farmers, and observed the chickens’ daily patterns, preferences, and reactions. She sang, danced, and coexisted with them every day. When the work was finally presented, the chickens sat in the audience, while humans became the performers—a complete reversal of conventional theatrical roles.
Hofstra’s project invites us to rethink a fundamental question of art: For whom does art exist? Who is entitled to be an audience?
Thus, KIP is regarded as a “multispecies” art experiment—one that temporarily removes humans from the center and returns the powers of perception, coexistence, and empathy to non-human life.
